


Rebuilding from scratch, or nearly that.

by RiethTheLost



Series: Reith's Overwatch AU [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: I'll go as far as implied but no further for the sake of people who don't like reading explicit, Multi, Nothing explicit in this fic, So that means probably never, Sombra has Angst about her past, They'll be under their own titles in the same collection 'Rieth's Overwatch AU', Will end when I entirely run out of ideas, Will update sporadically / as I get inspiration for more, never-ending limbo state of 'oh this idea could go somewhere cool'
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-25
Updated: 2018-04-28
Packaged: 2018-11-18 19:19:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 32,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11297115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiethTheLost/pseuds/RiethTheLost
Summary: Overwatch's recall begins after Reaper fails to claim the data on the whereabouts of former agents. However, with only Lena answering the call, this restart may be a bit rockier than Winston had hoped. Not all the old guard is coming back, and new faces will be needed to show that Overwatch is more than just a shell of it's former self. Heavy divergence from canon, splitting from a few days after Sombra's 'Infiltration' short takes place.





	1. Dead Weight

**Author's Note:**

> My first story on this site! feels good to write again, I haven't in so long.

Sombra brushed hair out of her eyes for the fifth time in the last thirty seconds. Not actually caring that she might look bad, (only two other people could see her, both of which she knew couldn't care less about how she looked) but due to nerves. Not that she'd ever admit it. Glaring, she looked across the helicopter's cabin at Reaper, who's expression was impossible to discern past his mask. "So, Gabe, I-" Sombra began, before being interrupted.

"I've told you before: don't call me that." Came the reply, along with a sigh. For once, he knew something she didn't; And it wasn't good.

"Fine, fine, amigo. So, _Reaper_ , Remind me why we're flying to Gibraltar? Didn't your last mission here fail?" Sombra shot back. She'd been woken up at 2AM for this mission, and she was not happy about it.

Reaper rolled his eyes, not that anyone could tell. "Yes, I failed here. But if you know what's good for you, you won't. Talon's higher-ups have been watching you, Sombra. They're concerned your goals might not quite align with theirs. So this mission is an opportunity to prove yourself. Succeed, and you'll be welcomed back. Fail, and well. I don't think they'll be welcoming back an electrocuted corpse."

The hacker shuddered at the thought. "I don't plan on dying today." She glanced out the window, watching the island approach. Soon they'd landed, and it was time to move out. "So, are you two coming with me? Why else would they have you come?"

Widowmaker, in her first action since stepping onto the helicopter, shook her head "non, you're doing this alone. We're only here for fire support if the Gorilla chases you outside."

"And to kill me if anything goes wrong..." Sombra muttered under her breath, before stepping out and walking along the paved path. For a former Overwatch base, Gibraltar was surprisingly undefended. No turrets, no guards, nothing but Winston, who would probably be waiting for her inside, and Athena. If she was in luck, Winston would be asleep. If not, This was going to go very poorly, very quickly. As she entered the main room, she glanced around for Winston, and saw him sleeping in the far corner. 'Finally, some good luck' she thought, silently moving up to the main computers that held the information she sought. With one movement of her augmented hand, Athena's voice was silenced before she could alert Winston. And with another, the locations and names of former agents of Overwatch were on a flashdrive, and Sombra was free to go. She dropped down from the computers to the entrance she'd used, but not before dropping a translocator just incase something went wrong on her way back. 

Sombra's bug left in the helicopter picked up voices. "I have a clear shot, Reaper." her head lifted 'Is Winston behind me? No, he's smarter than that; with Gabe and Widow's guns, he wouldn't last five seconds.' Her thoughts began to race at the implications of Widowmaker's words.

"Not yet. We need that data first. Then you can kill her."

Sombra stopped dead. "... Reaper, I believe she can hear us. I'm taking the shot, you can take the data from her corpse." She turned, her augmented hand made a motion, and translocation began. As it did, a shot rang out, Followed by a scream of pain.

"Winston! Wake up! Gunfire has been detected on the island!" Athena's voice rang out. Winston woke with a start, looking up at Athena's computers, and saw Sombra collapsed on the floor. 

"Athena, status?"

"A helicopter is flying away from the island now, it's cabin was the shot's origin point. I'm scanning for where it landed now."

As Winston approached Sombra, he sighed "I don't think you need to do that; I've found it."

"Please... help me. I don't want to die." Sombra coughed out, blood seeping from the wound in her back. Pain was a relatively new sensation for her, since even when shot at before, even when shots had landed, her implants had dulled the pain. She had had no time to prepare for this, so she could feel it all. 

Athena's voice spoke, and Sombra's face fell. "Winston, she is a talon agent. It would be wise to let her perish here."

"I'm not doing that, Athena" Winston's reply came. "Even if she is an enemy, she's dying here and we have the tools to help. Activate medical protocols, She needs to be treated badly."

Sombra brushed the hair out of her eyes for the first time since the helicopter, but now only so she could see. Winston had moved her onto a table in the lab, and she saw mechanical arms reaching down, and the camera Athena was using as an eye above them. Her implants took over, putting her into a short coma so that she wouldn't feel the surgery being performed.


	2. Revelations and Regrets

The talon helicopter was silent for a few minutes, except for Reaper's pacing, before he finally broke the silence.

"You could have killed her."

"Yes."

"Easily. One shot."

"Yes."

"Why didn't you?"

"Why did you bring me? orders were, you were to be the only elite here, and you were meant to be the one to kill her." Widowmaker snapped, her voice temporarily losing it's emotionless deadpan.

Reaper stopped his pacing and stared "So you hesitated to take a kill shot because of me? You're getting sloppy, Widowmaker. Don't let anyone at talon learn that."

Widowmaker shook her head "I didn't hesitate. I took a non-lethal shot on purpose. She'll die to the gorilla anyway. But I did it to get information out of you."

"Out of me? What information could not killing Sombra when you had the chance possibly leave you to gain?" Behind the mask, reaper's face was a mess of anger, and, though Widowmaker couldn't see it, tears stained his face.

"Well for one, why you seem so defensive over this. You've never hesitated before either, Reaper."

Reyes sighed, and looked back at the island fading in the distance "I suppose there's no way out of telling you this, is there? Fine. You know I don't have family- joining Overwatch didn't really leave me with enough time to go about finding anyone. But before joining, when I was just a kid, my mother thought it'd be a great idea to make me pen pals with some girl from Castillo. And we became friends. Eventually, she had a daughter. Said if the girl ever came stateside, or once I was with Overwatch, if I ever got leave, she'd love for me to look after her. Then the daughter died. Tragically, in an accident."

Widowmaker's calm didn't waver for a second. "And this girl was Sombra?" She watched the masked face for any signs of emotion, be it a posture change, any twitch, something.

He shook his head. "No, the daughter was."

"But you said she died."

"I did. And that is the official story. Her body was recovered from a car wrapped around a tree, it's speedometer last reporting speeds in excess of twice the posted speed limit. DNA testing proved the body was hers. But she never did die. She escaped and joined Los Muertos. The mother knew, but had to send information on her daughter in cypher, because of why Sombra had to fake her death; something she never told me. Always kept at least one Blackwatch agent watching Los Muertos, but not destroying them, despite how easily Overwatch's resources could have stomped them out. There was no way to tell which of them was her. After Overwatch's fall, I kept an eye on the gang myself from the safety of being a talon agent, until she left. I gave her a subtle hint that talon might be a good place to use her talents."

Keeping her face calm at this point, despite her supposed lack of emotions, was difficult even for Widowmaker. "So Sombra is..."

"The closest thing I have to a niece." Reaper sighed, and sat down. "You asked why I couldn't shoot her. Now the skeleton's out of the closet. I'm just a sentimental old bastard, beneath the exterior of The Reaper."

Both agents were thankful for the fact that the helicopter didn't need a pilot, and for the fact that one of Sombra's first actions upon entering the craft had been disabling any of talon's microphones that might have been listening to anything that had been said.

"Now answer me this, Widowmaker; Do you really think Winston would have killed Sombra? He's part of Overwatch's old guard."

"I think the pragmatic and logical thing would be to kill her. She's an enemy to them, and it would be a waste of resources to mend the wounds of an enemy."

"Right, but since when was Overwatch ever a logical, or pragmatic, organization? We were supposed to be heroes. Help those in need, and if anyone's in need of a friend right now, it's Sombra. She hasn't got one left in this world."

"If we tell Talon's council that Sombra may have lived, they'll send us out to hunt her down again."

"You're not wrong about that, LaCroix." Reaper thought for a moment. "Alright, here's our story; Sombra never made it out of Winston's lab; he was awake when she went in, and she was killed in action fighting him. The one shot registered by your rifle was a warning shot to keep her moving."

"A good story, for sure. But you berate Sombra for calling you Gabe, but call me by the name of the woman I used to be? You really do hold others to a higher standard than yourself, _Gabriel._ "

"I didn't want her calling me that, because I was afraid I'd stop you from doing what you had to. It doesn't matter anymore, so lets let this conversation die, it never should have started."

Now both stared back at the island. Reaper was about to signal the craft to head back to base, when he thought of something. "Hey, will your visor work from this distance?"

Widowmaker nodded "It will." She activated it, and looked down at Winston's lab. "Three heat signatures on the island."

Reaper stood back up "Wait, three? It was supposed to be only Winston."

As her visor deactivated, Widowmaker turned "It seems at least one of Overwatch's agents has returned. Based on the silhouette provided by my visor, Lena Oxton answered the call. Remember, she was with him in Numbani when we attempted to steal the gauntlet."

Reaper shuddered "Trust me, I remember. I'm surprised you haven't blocked that encounter from your mind though, considering you got your ass handed to you by a kid."

"I would never wipe a mistake from my memory; it would steal from me the opportunity to learn from it. And that _kid_ had The Doomfist Gauntlet, I remind you."

Laughter, now. "Your emotions really are coming back, LaCroix. Again, don't let anyone at talon realize it. They'll put you through that process again, and I'm not sure you'll survive a second trip down memory lane."

Watchpoint: Gibraltr faded away in the distance, the one light left on in the base slowly shrinking to a single point, then disappearing as the helicopter flew away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unfortunately for Sombra, she's unconcious during this conversation so her bug couldn't pick any of it up to tell her. Oh well.


	3. Memories

During the surgery, Sombra's implants kept her asleep, going through her memories. Occasional happy memories during her time at Talon or in Los Muertos, though they were few and far between- mostly getting on Gabe's nerves, or executing a particularly difficult plan without a hitch. Then the memories started to get darker. She remembered faking her own death. The innocent person she'd had to kill to make good on her getaway. The car, crashing into the tree. Bursting into flames. The poor girl didn't even die quickly. Sombra remembered her screams. She also remembered the wails of her mother, believing her daughter had died. It had become too much, she'd approached her mother after and explained everything, begging her to stay silent, to pretend she actually had died that night. Her mother had made good on her word, never once implying that Sombra might still live. Not even to her siblings. As for Sombra herself, she made her best effort to forget her old life, but she never could fully. She always held onto the hope that someday, she could return. She knew it was a pipe dream, but it felt good to hope.

After her surgery, Sombra slowly awoke, and sat up to look around. She noticed a few things upon this; One, Winston was examining her translocator. Two, Athena had neglected to put her coat back on her after removing it for her surgery, leaving her in her underwear. She was going to be irate about this, but realized her coat was probably missing a hole in the back where Widowmaker had shot her. _Ugh._ Just thinking about Widowmaker and Reaper made her mad. She knew they were only following orders, but the way they just threw her out like trash, it pissed her off. She'd thought she had friends, even if they were only working together because they had to. Clearly, she'd been wrong. She looked back over at Winston. "Having fun over there?"

Winston started, almost dropping the translocator. "Gah! I wasn't aware you had woken. And as for your question; This is my technology, isn't it. Similar to Lena's accelerator."

Sombra nodded. "Yeah, I may have... borrowed the design. I have to thank you, it's saved my hide more than once." She looked down at herself "Say... Any chance you have clothes in my size somewhere around base? As much as I like the cool breeze, I also like wearing shirts."

The scientist thought for a moment. "Somewhere in the barracks, probably. I'm sure we had a female agent around your size on staff at some point. If not, Athena can make alterations to an existing uniform, and Lena can take you shopping. We need to resupply soon anyway."

"Speaking of, she's on base? I'm glad she had the sense to stay inside last night; Her getting in the line of fire would have complicated things even more than talon trying to execute me. Which reminds me, I need to do something quickly." Sombra brought up her augmented hand, and with it, a window with a simple phrase on it "Initiate Back Up and Scorched Earth?" with a yes/no prompt. She pressed Yes to both. "There. Try to loot my stuff now, talon. See what it gets you."

"I'll call her here; I have a feeling it wasn't so much conscious choice as her just being asleep. You landed here at nearly 4am, after all." Winston approached the comms system, and spoke "Lena, can you come down to my lab?" He thought about how to phrase this next part. Lena was an instinctive person, and seeing Sombra might make her jumpy, especially after possibly being woken by gunfire earlier in the morning. "We have a... new recruit for you to meet."

Within two minutes, Lena had come down from the main dormitories and reached the lab. "New recruit? What's going on, Winst-" Her eyes widened when she saw Sombra, and a hand went to her pulse pistol "You! What the bloody hell are you doing here?!"

Winston stepped in before Lena could do anything else. "Lena! Calm down. Sombra isn't your enemy, at least, not anymore. Talon has betrayed her. And now, she's in need of allies and help. We can provide both."

Sombra nodded "you can look at the bullet Athena pulled out of me if you want; It's one from Widow's Kiss."

Lena glanced at the bullet, and nodded. "I can see that it is but, Why should we trust you? You've never done anything to earn that trust in the past."

The hacker sighed "And nothing I can do will prove it to you; I read your file. Bull-headed and quick to piss off, slow to forgive."

Winton looked between the two, hoping to stop an all-out fight, at least in his lab. "I have an idea. Lena, you always were a fan of making friends during sparring, that's how you got Genji to open up before the fall. Sombra, would you be opposed to sparring with Lena?"

Sombra glanced away from Lena for a moment. "Provided we're fist-fighting and not with weapons, sure. I don't trust her with a live gun near me."

Lena sneered at Sombra. " _You're_ the one that doesn't trust _me?_ Don't make me laugh. The only person I'd trust less than you is Widowbitch! But if Winston thinks some sparring will work, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try."

The two walked down to the Gibraltar gym, Sombra occasionally making some attempt to make peace, While Lena tried to loosen up. By the time they reached the gym, She actually was somewhat interested in Sombra's activities. "So, you're sayin' you used to be Los Muertos? Always had a bad streak, huh?"

Sombra laughed "Suppose I have."

Lena shook her head "But I mean, even before that? when you were just a kid? Surely you were more friendly then."

Sombra shook her head "Even then. I once hacked a city councilman's computer and sold private info to a gang member so I could buy candy. Hey, before we go in; you got any clothes I can change into? mine are... bloody."

"Somewhere in here, I'm sure. We kept uniforms of all sizes around here in the gym, in case we got new recruits. You might have to shake the dust out, though. I was sorta wondering why you were walking around half dressed."

"Call it a fashion statement."

"Suuuure."

After Sombra found a uniform and put it on, not without complaints of how it wasn't really fit to her. Lena got ready to spar, stretching and waiting. As they got ready, Sombra thought for a moment "No blinking, and I won't Translocate or activate my camo?"

"Sounds good. Fair's fair." Lena nodded, and they both stood ready "... You've never fought with your hands before, have you."

"What? what's wrong?"

Lena relaxed, then laughed "You're not even standing properly; I could take you down any number of ways without breaking a sweat."

"Try me."

"Your funeral!" The former agent stepped forwards and started a leg sweep, then yelped as she realized even unarmed, Sombra's augmented hand was dangerous, narrowly dodging it as it swiped past her face. "Jeez, careful! you've almost got claws there!"

Sombra grinned at her. "See? Even unarmed, I find ways to avoid fighting on even ground."

Lena shook her head "Always one step ahead, you are."

"Alright, lets do this, Lena." Sombra stepped forwards and swung.

Their fight continued for a few minutes, until in an attempt to dodge one of Lena's attacks, Sombra's augmented hand brushed across the Chronal Accelerator. Suddenly, it's blue light turned purple and it flashed. Lena stopped and looked down with a troubled expression. "Hey, it's never done that befo-" before she shimmered, and disappeared, the Accelerator dropping to the ground. Sombra looked around, exasperated.

"Hey, I thought we said... no... blinking." She continued her search, but saw no sign of the Overwatch agent. "Lena?" Nothing but silence answered her. "... Lena? Please?"

After nearly a minute of silence, Sombra ran to the comms system and tried not to sound panicked as she spoke into it "Winston? We uh... might need you down here in the Gym."

Winston's voice echoed out of the speaker "What happened? It's only been ten minutes!"

Sombra looked around again, hoping Lena would appear as suddenly as she'd vanished. "My hand brushed the Chronal Accelerator during our sparring, I think it might have malfunctioned. It's on the ground, but Lena's nowhere to be found."

 _"What."_ Winston's voice sounded like it was nearly panicked himself. Within a minute, he was down in the gym, looking at the Accelerator. "Oh no. Lena, I hope you're alright."

Sombra moved over. "So... mind filling me in?"

Winston looked up, exasperated "First, can you get that device in the corner? it's for charging the accelerator. Hopefully I can reboot it."

After doing so, Sombra set it down and asked "Anything I can help with?"

"No, but I suppose I should tell you why she has this. After the slipstream incident, Lena became Chronally dissociated with our present. Her body hops between times erratically, and the Accelerator keeps her held down. Without it, she vanishes like this. She's generally back within an hour, though the longer she goes without getting stabilized, the larger the chance she doesn't come back."

Sombra's eyes widened. "So I might... have killed her."

Winston shook his head "No. She'll be back. She's always back, at least the first time. My calculations have shown that theoretically she can disappear up to four times before she has a chance of not coming back. I hope we never have to take that chance." The accelerator hummed to life as it began charging "Good... good." Winston's voice filled with relief.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lena gasped, and opened her eyes. King's Row. She was in King's Row. and the sound of gunfire filled the air. Running to the edge of the building she found herself on, she looked down and saw omnics running through the street, but not just any omnics. Null Sector.

She found her voice, her tone horrified "I'm back in the uprising. Oh god, no." She sprinted down the fire escape of the building, looking for somewhere to hide. Winston always said if she ended up in the past, she needed to avoid altering it. Something horrible could happen, according to him. She didn't feel the familiar weight of the accelerator on her chest. "No blinking, and no recall. Looks like I'm playing by Sombra's rules 'till I get back to the present." Voices came from below.

"YOU BASTARDS! I'LL FIGHT ALL OF YOU!" Came Reinhardt's bellows. At the very least, at least she wasn't alone here.

"Reinhardt, our new cadet can teleport and you're still leaving her behind. Spare some thought for the rest of us." She recognized Angela's tone, clearly somewhat tired. This must have been nearer the end of the uprising. Tracer absentmindedly wondered where she was at the current moment. Then her answer came in a flash of blue light moving from roof top to roof top. 

"Hey, I think I see a civvie up here! I'll get her out, then be back in just a tic!" Came the happy voice. Tracer realized what happened immediately. _Oh no. I've found me._ A hand landed on her shoulder, and she was worried to look up. Would she recognize herself? "Luv, it's dangerous here. We gotta move you out! Come on, no time to be slow!"

"I know my way out, is south clear? I can escape that way." Lena spoke, trying to disguise her voice so her younger self didn't realize it was her.

"What? Yeah, we just came from there. But I can get you out and be back with my team before they even realize." The younger Lena smiled "Promise."

"No, be with your team, they'll need you." Lena started moving down, then away from the Overwatch team, south. As soon as she was out of line of sight, she doubled back. Too late to avoid altering the past now, she supposed. Might as well alter it for the better. Running forwards, she picked up a rifle from a fallen soldier. She raised it and looked down the sights "A bit heavy for what I'm used to, but I'll make do." She ran from point to point, glancing around for Null Sector omnics. After she passed a street, she heard voices again.

"D-did anyone just see Lena run by?" _Shit._

"What? Dr. Ziegler, I'm right here. You OK there, Luv?"

"It's nothing. I just need to check my medicine for hallucinatory side-effects later." _Well, that could have gone worse._

Lena saw an Eradicator approaching from behind the team, it was going to fire if she didn't do anything. She immediately rose the gun an began firing. The first shot cracked open the casing holding it's shield generator, the second shattered the generator within. The robot staggered forwards, and turned. Torbjorn heard the fighting and turned "Hey! survivor over there, fighting an eradicator! You all get ready for my payload to blow those doors, I'll help them out."

She dodged between two shots, continuing to fire until she ran out of ammunition. At this point, she realized she'd forgotten to pick up any spare from the man she'd claimed the rifle from. "Oh, this is not good." Having no other option, she hurled the rifle at the eradicator's head. When it fell over, she almost thought it had been her doing until she saw Torbjorn standing behind it, at which point she immediately pulled her shirt up to hide her face.

The engineer looked at her "Good job, civvie. Not many could take one of those monsters down, even with help. You clearly know your way around; I trust you'll find some safety now that you're weaponless." He stood for a moment, listening to something in his earpiece. "Yeah yeah, Jack. I'm making my way back to the team. Just had a girl that needed help. Would you have rather me let a Civvie go toe to toe with an eradicator? I thought not." He grumbled as he walked away. "Acts like I don't know what I'm doing. Pfuh."

Lena shuddered. That thing could have killed her. She had no idea what could happen if she _died_ in the past, but she assumed it wasn't good. Almost as if on queue, her body shimmered and faded.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lena appeared in the Gibraltar gym, gasping and out of breath, as she stabilized thanks to the proximity of the active Accelerator. Winston immediately moved over to examine her. "Lena! Are you alright? Sombra called me as soon as you disappeared."

She nodded, slowly getting to her feet. "I'm alright, Winston. Just a bit out of breath, and boy, I suppose I did get my exercise in today. Never thought I'd fight another eradicator."

"An eradicator? Lena, are you saying you-"

Lena nodded again. "Yeah, I woke up in King's Row during the battle. I tried to avoid altering the past as you said but... Well. Within a minute of arriving, I found me. Then an Eradicator did. And Torbjorn, though luckily he didn't recognize me."

"Wait, _you_ found you? You mean you talked with your past self. Just... Great. Did she realize?"

"No. She never saw my face, and I made sure to fake my voice."

Sombra spoke up "I... I'm glad you're alright Lena. I know you probably won't believe me, but I didn't mean to have that happen; I didn't know about your condition. It's not in your file."

Lena looked over "It's alright, Sombra. You couldn't have, it was never recorded anywhere. Only Winston, Jack, and Angela knew about my condition."

They relaxed for a moment, Lena sitting down and asking for a drink, Winston going to provide one, and Sombra laying up agianst the wall, reciting an algorithm she'd designed to keep her concentration. Today had been an interesting day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like this is how Lena's dissociation would happen, disappearing from her current time and temporarily ending up in another. Winston think she just has a chance to disappear, but in actuality she'll always come back in time, provided she doesn't die in the past.
> 
> Also, somehow the chapter duplicated itself. Weird. It's fixed now.


	4. Frostbite

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Boy, if you were looking for happy, this isn't the place to find it. At least, not for the first few chapters.

**"Good morning. The time is 8:43AM. The temperature outside is negative 54 Celsius. Communications are still offline. Maximum safe possible length of cryogenic stasis reached. Unfreezing scientists."**

The machine holding Mei slowly lowered her from it's containment, until she was placed on the floor. A tube connected to her arm flowed with a light blue liquid, while the lights on the machine displayed various vital information such as heart rate, internal body temperature, and brain activity. Four other machines in the same room displayed error messages, and their heart rate monitors remained flat lined, as they had for years now. Slowly, Mei regained consciousness.

**"One scientist successfully defrosted. Cryogenic stasis for other scientists failed."**

Mei would have responded, had her hearing returned yet. Her arms stayed stiff, her body unmoving. Eventually, painfully, she sat up. Limbs that had not moved in years protested at the sudden attempt. After a minute, she worked her way to her feet to look around. "H...Hello? Torres? Opara? are you two up? Macready? ... Any of you?" Another minute passed with no response, so she spoke again. "Computer, status on my team."

The computer responded with it's monotone. **"Status on all scientists except for Mei-Ling Zhou: Deceased."**

Mei blanched. "Deceased?! No, that can't be possible." She turned and tried to open one of the other cryogenic machines, but the computer refused her. Then she resorted to punching the glass, trying to break them out. After a moment, the computer spoke again.

**"Mei, it is inadvisable to injure oneself while alone in a research base without a way to communicate with the outside world. Suggestion: Repair communications before risking yourself."**

She hated it, but she knew the computer was right. Grief could come later, now was the time for survival. Picking her winter gear from a rack, she put it on and prepared to go outside to deal with repairing the communications tower. It took a few hours of work, but since they'd all prepared for it to go down by drilling each other on how it was to be repaired, Mei knew how to fix it like the back of her hand. The cold was surprising to Mei, not because of how bad it was, but because she didn't seem to notice it. Maybe the stasis had gotten to her nerves. She'd have to see if the Ecopoint's medical station was still working. With the repair finished, she climbed down from the tower and made her way to the base's computer room, where she immediately noticed two things. One, a message was on her computer screen. Two, A note on her desk. She decided on the note first, as that had to have been left by her team after she went into stasis, but before they did.

_Mei, If you're reading this, well. Stasis didn't go as planned, did it? We want you to know something, And... don't be mad. It wasn't random chance that you were the one to survive this. We had a vote while you were preparing the pods. We may have kept it a secret from you that the storm hit the station's generator; it doesn't have enough power to keep all of the pods active indefinitely, only one. So... we kinda sabotaged ours. If you're wondering why you, well, we knew you'd have objected if we told you. Refused to let us all give our lives for yours. That made you the right choice. None of us came here without knowing this was a possibility. But we'd rather one of us live to carry on our work. Remember, Mei; the world is worth fighting for. That's the one thing we all agreed on. Don't let that hope fade._

Below the writing was the signatures of each of the other scientists on her team, along with a short, handwritten goodbye from each. Mei nearly broke down then and there, but she held her composure. She found the drone she'd been working on before the storm hit, and wondered if she'd finally gotten it right just before the end. As it powered on, it's eyes lit up and despite everything, Mei smiled. Snowball was working! She looked back at the computer screen to see her message. 

**Overwatch Recall: Answer? Y/N**

Mei's eyes widened "Recall? what happened? Computer, how old is this message?"

**"According to the date on the message, 7 months, 16 days. It would have arrived sooner, were communications available."**

Part of her wondered why the message waited so long to be answered, maybe it was just set to never go away unless it got a response. She tentatively tapped Yes.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Winston was alerted to the sound of Athena's voice.

"Winston, an agent has answered the recall. Climatologist Mei-Ling Zhou, part of the Ecopoint initiative. Location: Antarctica."

With a start, winston asked the obvious question: "Antarctica? How? W-wait. Mei's team was lost years ago, even before the fall! How can she be alive now?"

"I'm not sure. Perhaps answering her call would provide you with the information you seek."

Winston pressed the 'accept call' prompt, And Mei's face appeared on the screen, somewhat shocked "Winston? Is that you? What's going on? Why do I have a several month old Recall message?"

Her flurry of questions left him flustered "Wait! Alright, one question at a time. Yes, I am Winston, unless there's another talking gorilla scientist around here that I don't know about. What's going on at the moment is you just startled me out of my train of thought. And the recall message, well. I prepared a speech about that but I can't find where I wrote it down. The point of it was that Overwatch needs to return. The world needs us."

"Overwatch needs to return? What happened to it? How long was I frozen?"

"I don't know how long you were frozen, but your team lost contact with Overwatch months before the fall. After your team's loss of contact, Ana Amari was killed in action by a Talon sniper. After that, the Switzerland base went up in flames, and took Gabriel Reyes and Jack Morrison with it. Then the Petras act went into place, making Overwatch activities illegal. The remaining agents, wherever they were, scattered. Right now all Overwatch is is Me, Lena Oxton, and A woman recently recruited named Sombra. Well, that's what she calls herself. She won't say her real name. No one else has answered the call. As Lena would put it; The world needs heroes. But it looks like we're all it's getting." Winston sighed "So that's the long and short of it. I won't force you to come back, Mei. Truth be told we don't have an Ecopoint initiative anymore; I'd assume that went up in smoke with the start of the petras act."

Mei shook her head "I'm not giving up on us being able to change the world, Winston. My team didn't die for nothing. The storm that took out our communications ruined the helicopter we used for transport, though. Is there any way you can get here to bring me back?"

"Died? You mean they're all..."

"Yeah. My team all gave their lives to make sure I'd survive. I'm not letting their sacrifice be in vain."

"Of course. I'll let Lena know she needs to put on some winter gear. She's the fastest pilot Overwatch has ever had. I doubt you'll be there waiting four hours."

"Sounds good, Winston! It'll be good to be somewhere warm. And somewhere with non-dehydrated food."

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reaper got an email from one of the talon heads;

_A communication went out from an old Overwatch Ecopoint in Antarctica. Presumably, there's an agent there. Long-range bird is already prepped for takeoff, the team just needs you._

He joined the team of talon operatives in the aircraft, and almost as the door closed it was already in the air, shooting off south. Reaper looked down "Someone fill me in. Boss had their usual lack of useful information." 

One of the talon grunts looked up "Sir, the parts of the communication intercepted imply that what remains of Overwatch is preparing a plane to rescue this agent. We're going to get there first. No one agent can take down a full team and one of our elites. Er, that being you. If luck prevails, we can take out the agent there and lay a trap for the rescuer and catch them, too."

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mei looked up at the plane coming in for a landing. It didn't look like one of Overwatch's, though with the petras act, maybe they had to change the coat of paint to look less official. Either way, something felt off. She quickly hid and picked up the meager things she'd found to defend herself with, and counted them.

Three: Snowballs. _Yeah, I'll just throw snowballs at them. That'll work._

One: Snowball (the drone) _Marginally more useful. It might spray them with cold fluid and give them a cold._

One: Cryogenic blaster _The only real 'weapon' of anything around the base. Can put living things in a short-term stasis or launch ice with considerable velocity, though that's not really it's intended use._

All in all, her chances looked pretty grim if her hunch was right and that wasn't Overwatch disembarking. Considering Winston had said they numbered no more than three, She was inclined to believe she had been.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reaper's team swept across the ice, looking around. Reaper himself prepared the speech he'd repeated to himself; He had thought that maybe he could convince Whoever was here that Talon's agents were Overwatch, and they were here to rescue them. It would make killing them that much easier after they put down their guard. "Remember: only shoot when you know you can kill. They might put their guard down if they think we're the rescue team."

They approached the computer room, and saw the paused game of ping-pong. Reaper spoke, attempting to affect a less gravelly tone than his usual one. "Hello? We're here to help- there's no reason to hide."

"Who's there? Are you with Overwatch?" He heard the voice, and his mind worked to recall the name that went with it- He'd only met Overwatch's science teams once or twice, but he picked out Mei-Ling Zhou as the source. 

Reaper smiled under his mask "Yeah, I'm with Blackwatch. We're here to bring you home, Mei."

"Blackwatch? Our covert ops division? Why would they send covert ops for this simple an operation?" The voice had moved. Mei might be on to them, or she might be coming closer.

"I asked to come myself, as a show of good faith. It's me, Gabriel Reyes. You remember me?"

"I can't say I remember well, but I recall you, yes. I'm just in here, in the room on your left." Reaper's grin grew wider. The bait had been taken. For a scientist, Mei really wasn't that smart, was she. He didn't notice the drone flying over his shoulder, as he walked into the hallway. As he reached it's halfway point, he heard screams from behind him. He whirled around to see what had happened. In the middle of the room, a blue drone spun, and what seemed like a miniature blizzard raged. He watched as his operatives froze to death in it's fury. Then as he turned back, The tunnel's ceiling collapsed behind him, creating an impenetrable wall of ice and snow. "You think I'm stupid. Winston told me what happened to Overwatch. Gabriel Reyes is dead. And people like you don't deserve to speak his name."

Clearly, he hadn't given her as much credit as she was due. He rushed into the room, glaring around to find her. A blast of cold hit him square in the back, and he found himself sluggish to turn to find his attacker. Mei stood there holding what somewhat looked like a gun, though instead of bullets it sprayed that damnable cold. Reaper dispersed into a cloud of smoke that retreated across the room, then reformed. "You could have just killed a dozen innocent people, Mei."

"Winston told me about talon, so I did my research while I waited. No one in your damn organization is innocent. Especially not you, Reaper. How many people have you killed? How many innocents have died by your hand?" Mei's gun shook for a moment, then launched an icicle that caught Reaper in the chest. He staggered back, grunting in pain. Then he heard it; Another plane descending outside. Overwatch had arrived. A single figure moved down the ramp, and Mei signaled for them by reaching over with her free hand and flicking the lights to the room. He recognized the operative; Tracer was going to be a thorn in his side. Again. He wondered for a brief moment if the woman sustained herself on the annoyance of others. Then he shadowstepped out of the room, clearly outmatched. Stepping onto the talon plane, he signaled for the pilot to take off.

"Where's the rest of the team?" The pilot glanced back, and saw only reaper in the cabin.

"Dead. The scientist knew we were coming. Froze them all solid. Damn near got me, too. Get us out of here before that damn cadet blinks her way in here and kills us both!" Reaper shouted, and the pilot obeyed. The plane was up and in the air in seconds.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Jeez, did you do this?" Tracer walked between the frozen talon agents, as Mei followed behind her.

"I didn't want to, but they would have killed me if I didn't." Mei shuddered. She felt like killing someone should have felt more... Impactful. Frightening. Everything since waking up felt covered in a dull haze. 

"Well, whatever happened, it looks like for your first time in a fight you did bloody brilliant, luv! You even scared off Reaper! That's something not even I've done alone!" Tracer laughed, Then straightened "Anyway, I'm Lena. My Codename's Tracer, but I don't think we really use those anymore, what with not really supposed to be being active. You'd be Mei then? I never really got a chance to meet the research teams when Overwatch was official and all." 

Mei nodded "Mei-ling Zhou, at your service. It's nice to meet you, Lena." The two walked out of the computer room after Mei gathered her belongings and what she could carry of her companions. Multiple trips later, all the various personal effects were moved from the base onto the Overwatch jet. Mei noted down owners for each item and addresses to ship them to. As the plane flew away, She made a silent vow never to return. This cold place had almost been her tomb. The base faded in the distance, and soon if it wasn't for the communication tower it would be impossible to tell it from the rest of the antarctic snow.


	5. Pooling Information, Pooling blood.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> These two events (separated by a line of dashes) are happening at the same time, so the end of the top half is happening at the same time as the end of the bottom.

Sombra sighed, browsing the news feed while half listening to the conversation Winston was having. Something Lena spoke up with made her pay attention, though.

"Hey cowboy, what's up? You decide to answer the recall?" Lena's voice breaking between Winston's and the other was jarring enough for Sombra to look up from her screen, and wonder why Lena would be calling anyone cowboy. Then she got her answer. On screen was, if she remembered her files right, (and she did- she was physically incapable of forgetting, thanks to her implants. Not always a good thing.) Jesse McCree, Honest to god cowboy.

"Nah, I still need some time away from the Overwatch name. Scores to settle that I don't want you lot associated with." McCree drawled. "Reason I'm callin' y'all is that just yesterday, I encountered the second instance of a strange occurance; I happened to be in the right place at the right time to stop a talon attack, but... they're usin' blackwatch tactics. And not badly, either. Someone's training 'em. Which means one of the old guard turned traitor. If I had to bet, it'd be that damn Shimada. something about him always struck me as off."

Sombra spoke up for the first time in the conversation. "It's not Genji. Reaper's the traitor, though he didn't go by that name in Blackwatch."

McCree raised an eyebrow "And who's this lady with all the information? And do you feel like sharing what his name _was_?"

Lena spoke before Sombra could, perhaps she sensed the sarcastic response already rising in Sombra's throat. "McCree, meet our recruit, Sombra. You... probably already have heard that name before. She's ex-talon, so if anyone knows where they're getting their info, it's her."

McCree's eyebrow couldn't raise any higher, but his expression of skepticism remained "Ex-talon? You sure you trust her? And I just read on the news, Some talon member posted a video through an anonymous source that they'd killed off the Sombra collective. You're saying not only is that false, but Sombra's just one person?"

Sombra laughed "Oh god, the Sombra collective. I haven't heard that one in a long time. Is and always was a crock of bullshit. I obviously couldn't use my real name in bars and such, so I kept creating aliases to go for drinks. eventually someone onto Sombra's existence caught on to my aliases and started creating a list that he called the Sombra collective. It kind of... exploded from there. And yeah, you can trust that I won't be returning to Talon. As I told Lena, you can check the bullet Athena pulled out of me. It's from Widowmaker's gun."

Winston sighed "Back to the point; you know who the traitor was, Sombra? Who?"

Sombra glanced back at Winston "Ok, but you're not going to like my answer. Reaper... is Gabriel Reyes. He never died in the Switzerland explosion, or at least, if he did, something brought him back. And it didn't do a fantastic job of it, either."

McCree blanched. "Reyes is alive?! And he turned traitor on us?! Goddamn bastard! Well, that solves who's been teaching Talon the Blackwatch playbook. But Sombra's revelation brings up a new question: Who else isn't actually dead? If Reyes survived, surely it's possible Jack did too?"

Sombra shrugged "I can't answer that definitively, but recently there was a vigilante who showed up in Dorado and ripped Los Muertos a new asshole. So it might be one of your old guard took up a new name. And hang on- did you say Talon was reporting my death?"

The cowboy nodded "Yeah, just saw it before I called. About 8 different news outlets received 'from an anonymous source' a video of a battlefield littered with bodies, with talon soldiers standing around. One of them looked into the camera, explained the whole 'We destroyed the Sombra collective' thing, then the feed cut. Ain't this good for you though? if people think you're dead, no one's hunting you."

Sombra nodded in return "Yeah, I think this is actually good for me. I'm surprised they assume I'm dead though, Widowmaker's shot wouldn't have killed me quickly. Plenty of time for Winston to give me medical attention... Unless Reaper and Widowmaker lied about having killed me. But why would they do that?"

Winston looked at a second screen, and gasped "Uh, we may want to look at this. Live feed from Castillo. It looks like a war zone down there."

Sombra's expression was pained "That... may be my fault. I activated defenses to make sure talon couldn't take the information stored on my computer if they looted my apartment, but it looks like the delivery I'd scheduled arrived early."

Winston's face fell. "What... Delivery?"

Sombra looked at the floor, and simply said "just look at the screen."

Everyone stared at it. Eventually, Lena spoke. "Sombra, _what the fuck, love._ "

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Reaper stood outside Sombra's apartment in Castillo. The small group of talon agents moved about, waiting for Reaper to produce the key to the building. Instead, Reaper shot the door and it crumpled. One agent jumped back- there wasn't supposed to be any fighting on this mission, a simple retrieval "Was that really necessary?!" he squeaked.

Reaper shook his head "Of course it is. Do you really think I had a key? That Sombra would have trusted anyone at Talon with the ability to enter her room unbidden?"

The group walked inside, and sombra's computer monitor lit, detecting presence. **"Agent Reaper Biosignature detected. Please log in. Password hint: You hate me calling you this, Reaper."**

Reaper groaned. Did she _really_ make his password "Gabe"? Though, why did she create an account for him on her computer? He walked to the machine and tentatively typed his name in. Then the computerized voice spoke again. 

**"I'm sorry, but Sombra has activated the Backup and Scorched Earth protocol. Login Denied. Beginning Scorched Earth."**

A Talon agent spoke up "Uh... What's it mean by 'Scorched earth'?"

Reaper backed away, and gestured for everyone to get out. "I don't know, but considering Sombra's idea of a personal defense weapon is an EMP, I'm going to take a guess and say it's not good." When he was the last one in the room, he glanced around it one last time, and saw a stuffed bear on the bed. A moment of weakness hit him, and he picked it up and hid it in his coat as he left. He'd bought Sombra that bear, before she even became Sombra. Part of him knew he'd be emotionally affected were it destroyed. As he got outside, a voice rang out. Sombra's voice. Though the quality made it clear it was a recording. It came from across and above the apartment. Based on the almost sing-song tone (and the fact that there was a quiet "oh, this shit's _good_ ") before her actual message started, he deduced she'd recorded this drunk. Considering he knew she only drank after successful missions, She must have expected this betrayal a long time ago.

_"If you come down to Castillo today, you're in for a big surprise~ If you come down to Castillo today, you better not be a Talon spy! Because if you come down to Castillo today, and you're a Talon spy, then today's the day that Sombra's revenge is nigh!"_

Heavy stomping followed the voice, and a figure crested the arch above them that Reaper recognized from their mission in Russia. He immediately began shouting orders. "Experimental Volskaya Industries battlemech incoming! it's got shields, heavy cannons, and a graviton surge it can use to kill you. Stay out of it's way, because Sombra doubtless made upgrades. It's shields are strong, but can't take sustained fire for too long. Focus them down, then try to disable the arms!"

The mech jumped down from it's elevated position, landing in the square in front of a statue. Its torso turned, and a figure none of them thought they'd ever see again was sitting at the controls. A hologram of Sombra, holding the modified flight sticks that controlled the mech's arms. "Heeeey, Reaper! Regret betraying me yet? Don't worry, by the end of this you will!" The mech's arms spun to life, blasting the Talon soldiers with lasers. Most dived for cover, though a few were caught with nowhere to go, and cut down. The remaining soldiers fired on the mech, pelting it with everything they could muster. Reaper dodged between it's arms, firing blast after blast of hellfire into it's shields. They began to spark, then fizzle, and the mech jumped backwards to get out of range. then, it raised both it's arms to chest height, and its torso began to spin slowly, then faster.

Reaper quickly realized what was about to happen. "Dive! hit the ground, now!" After he said this, he dived forwards just as the lasers activated, creating a spinning field of light that sliced through statue, stone, and human alike. The mech's spin slowed to a stop, and it faced down the remnants of talon's force, now only reaper and three agents. The mech barreled forwards, crushing one soldier underfoot as it smashed through the arch, then the wall of Sombra's apartment. Reaper was confused; Why would the mech want to fight in an enclosed space? Then he saw what it was doing. It had leveled its lasers at Sombra's computer, and was melting the machine down. "Stop it before it destroys her computer! we need that data!" It was too late, however, as the computer was more than turned to slag by the time they did any real damage to the mech. It turned, and fired a graviton surge. The remaining two talon agents were caught in it as reaper shadowstepped out of it's range. They were cut down, leaving just Reaper and the mech. Sombra's hologram looked at him, then as he rushed to get close enough it couldn't target him with it's lasers, slapped him with the cannon and threw him into the wall where previously her Web of light had hung, marking connections she'd pieced together in the great conspiracy she'd uncovered as a girl. The wall lit up, and Sombra spoke. "Take a good long look, Gabe. You're not as free working for talon as you think." The mech turned then, and started walking South. A camera drone floated down, and got a closeup on the hologram at the controls before it winked out of existence, leaving the Mech's ai to keep moving.


	6. GG.

Mei held Lena back from lunging at Sombra. " _What the bloody hell was that, Sombra? You destroyed half a neighborhood!_ "

Sombra took a step back, holding her hands up "I didn't! The mech's AI did that, the hologram was just that- a hologram!"

"Why did you have a Volskaya battlemech in your damn hideout?!"

"Because! If talon ever got a hold of what was on my computer, a _whole_ lot of people would die. There's blackmail-worthy info on half the governments of the world and even more of the corporations on that computer! I had to be sure in case of my death, it was destroyed, or talon would have most of the world dancing at the end of puppet strings! You may not believe me, but for once in my goddamn life I was trying to do the right thing." Sombra turned and prepared to leave. "But I can tell none of you want to hear what I have to say. You just want someone to blame for that." She pointed at the screen.

McCree spoke up "Now, hold on, Lena. You may be mad right now but you know she's right. If what she said about her computer was true, Talon would be all too eager to get what's on it. You have to admit for a simple clean up they sent _way_ too many operatives; They knew something would go wrong. They just didn't know to what extent Sombra's defenses would be."

Winston interrupted before either woman could argue further; "We need to put this aside; It seems talon really isn't happy about losing two squads in one day; They're threatening a tournament where many of South Korea's MEKA pilots are participating. Due to diplomatic reasons, no MEKAs are allowed to be brought, so those operatives are left with nothing but their personal sidearms. Not exactly the weapons to be fighting terrorists worth. Talon's getting desperate now; If we keep denying them their attacks, they're going to start making mistakes. They already have, spreading their forces as thin as they did today. If we can stop this attack, we will have destroyed three talon squads in three days. That's more than any force has managed in recent years."

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hana Song slowly lifted her head off of her keyboard, groaning. She'd fallen asleep after her stream without actually getting out of her chair. Again. Her stomach protested, and she realized she also hadn't taken her mid-stream break to eat. Again. A knocking on her door informed her of what had woken her up; Someone wanted her attention.

"Hana? Hana, I know you're in there."

 _Ugh_. One of the sponsors for her stream who thought it entitled him to act like a producer or a director. Or a damn parent.

"Hana, you haven't seen sunlight in two days. I don't even know if you've _eaten_ in two days. Besides your health, there's another reason I'm here. A terrorist group is threatening the tournament. They're considering cancelling it. In case they don't, Hana, I beg you to get some rest. If you pass out mid-match, they won't pause the tournament for you."

Hana rolled her eyes. "If they'd just let us bring MEKAs, there'd be no terrorists in the world who dared threaten us."

"Yes, but we're not in South Korea, and bringing a MEKA to another country without express permission from that country's government is considered an act of war due to the MEKA's payload. I swear Hana this gets explained to you every time you leave the country." Her sponsor was exasperated. She was currently on leave from MEKA, but she had requested numerous times (and did every time she got leave) to take her MEKA with her. She never specified a reason, either. Of course, being a government agency with responsibilities to it's country, MEKA denied her request every time. This pissed Hana off to no end.

 _They don't even understand why I would want it with me. None of them would. So I don't bother giving my reason; They'd just ship me off to a psych ward._ Hana's thoughts intruded, and she heard her sponsor asking if she'd fallen asleep at her chair again. She responded with a grunt of annoyance, and got up to find something to eat. The hotels provided by the hosts of the tournament (Blizzard themselves, of course, as this was an official Starcraft tournament) had been five star, so there was no shortage of food in the rooms. Hell, she could probably live in this room and never leave, provided room service kept coming every so many hours. In a way, the confined space reminded her of her MEKA. Inside the room, at her computer, she was in her element, and no one could touch her. She was _invincible._ After making food quickly, and opening the door to show her producer that yes, she was in fact taking care of her bodies requirements for survival, she stalked back to her computer, sat down, and opened up her Discord channel under her secondary account, that wasn't any of the important roles on her server. It was important to be able to see how people were responding without the channel absolutely detonating like it did any time her main account signed on and appeared at the top of the screen under the 'Song' role. A conversation about her previous stream, one about some fanart, and one about the current tournament, that seemed to dominate the channel. She joined the conversation, speculating about who would be continuing on to the second round, and which players would be left in the dust as early as round one. She noticed an annoyingly familiar name and icon showing up in the conversation; They banned this account almost daily, but they were always back. Even went so far as to IP ban them, but the next day they returned with an IP that randomly changed itself every three minutes. For once, they seemed to actually be seriously concerned about something, and not just fucking with everyone.

LaHechicera: Just saying, this isn't just some random morons who are threatening the tourney, it's Talon. They don't mess around. Even Overwatch couldn't consistently keep them down while the organization was still up and running.

HeroOfAiur: What, the great LaHechicera actually showing concern for another? Has hell frozen over? Have pigs began to fly?

LaHechicera: I'd get bored if Hana got killed by some terrorists, her stream community is by far the most fun to fuck with. Plus NGL, she's not bad to look at.

Hana rolled her eyes, and picked this time to add her own voice to this conversation.

RandomRaceMain: Yeah? And here I thought you watched her stream because you thought she was good at Starcraft.

LaHechicera: Hahaha, I'm pretty sure at least a third of her viewer base is only watching because she's a teenage girl. It's part of what makes it so god damn easy to screw with them. Oh, have I pissed the mods off enough to get my daily ban? Ban me harder, mommy~

Hana closed Discord as the ban message appeared. The troll was right, but she didn't like admitting it. She knew a good portion of her viewer base was probably horny teens or young adults who really didn't give a damn about whatever game she was playing. She noticed it when she was sick and had to turn off her facecam, she got a fair bit fewer viewers on those days. Two days until the tournament. Then she'd go back to training with MEKA.

An uneventful stream later, Hana crawled into bed and sighed. Her sponsor was right, she should try to get restful sleep. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sombra was indignant "What do you mean I'm not going with you? You're all seriously going to leave me here alone?"

Winston nodded. "You are possibly our most valuable asset vs talon at the moment. The fact that you are dead by their knowledge means we have a weapon they can't possibly see coming. We need to wait for the perfect moment to use it."

"So, you're leaving me here. Alone. Great. The tournament isn't even today, it's in two days." 

Hours later, Sombra sat alone in the Gibraltar living quarters, absentmindedly opening discord. Screwing with people was amusing enough to distract her. She logged into her account, and found she had been banned. Simple enough to bypass. After screwing with a streamer's fanbase for a while, she logged off. There honestly just wasn't much to do around Gibraltar without anyone else there. She almost wished for her computer in Castillo back, but she knew that would have been a disaster. Talon couldn't uncover what she had, not while that organization pulled the strings. She needed more information on that Eye. As she did research, Athena's voice spoke up.

"Sombra, an unknown air vehicle is approaching Gibraltar. I suggest hiding, especially since my sensors pick up Reaper's presence."

Sombra glanced up at the window, and saw the helicopter flying in. "Reaper's coming here? Bold of him. That means he's not assigned to whatever's happening at the tournament though... I wonder if that means Widowmaker is there. I suppose he's probably here to finish what he started." She chose to face death with dignity, if that was indeed Reaper's intention.

Reaper stood in the helicopter, looking down at Sombra. "Why didn't you kill me when you had the chance? Your mech had me dead to rights." Reaper scowled beneath his mask.

"Why didn't you kill me when _you_ had the chance, Gabe?" Sombra's curiosity truly had gotten the better of her; It had been in the back of her mind since she had been shot.

Reaper's scowl grew deeper, but of course, Sombra couldn't tell with the mask in the way. "I can't tell you. But Sombra, I need to know; what was the purpose of what you showed me in Castillo? It just looked like a mess of light and pictures." 

Sombra rolled her eyes. "Have you never done a connect the dots puzzle? think of it like one of those, but instead of a picture, it explains something about the world. Something I've yet to figure out myself. But surely that wasn't the only reason you came here."

Reaper nodded. "It wasn't. Here, I brought you this." He drew his arm from his coat and tossed the stuffed bear he'd retrieved from Sombra's apartment at her. Sombra caught it, and stared.

"Gabe, you... You saved this. Of everything in my apartment, you saved... This. _Dios mio_. Why? Why this of everything?"

Reaper shrugged. "You once mentioned it after a mission, while drunk. Said your mother got it for you. I figured it had enough sentimental value to it that you should have it. Talon would have just burned or sold it. Now, I have to leave. I can't be gone too long or the council will become suspicious of where I've gone."

"Wait, before you go;" Sombra stopped him. "Did you... destroy what I showed you in Castillo? No one can ever know I was onto them, or all the effort I've put into this is wasted. And Gabe... you don't need to work for Talon. Get Widowmaker, bring her here and abandon them! I'm sure we can figure out how to reverse what they did to her."

Reaper shook his head, sadly. "You know I can never work with Overwatch again. They destroyed me. Made me into this abomination. And every last person involved is going to pay. And if you get in my way... I can't keep you safe forever, _Bit._ "

Sombra's heart skipped a beat. _How the fuck? Only my mother knew about that nickname..._ She struggled to keep her voice even. "I'm sorry to hear that, Gabe. Think about what I said though; You don't need to work for Talon." Sombra watched as Reaper returned to the helicopter's pilot seat, and instructed the AI to return to the Talon base it had come from.  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Two Days Later- Day of the tournament**

Hana was nervous. Though, it wasn't hard to act like she wasn't. D.va had become a personality that was for showing the world- No one could see Hana underneath. The announcer's voice spoke out to the crowd below.

 _"Our first round is about to begin! Hana Song, vers-"_ the audio cut out. That was weird. Hana looked up and saw a large hole blown in the convention center roof. Through it, a black VTOL could be seen, carrying Talon soldiers.

Hana looked at the other competitor on the stage- a fellow MEKA pilot. "Looks like Talon is pulling through on that threat. We have to do something, or they're going to kill hundreds, if not thousands of people here today."

The other pilot nodded "Yes, but without our MEKA, we're down to just sidearms. and they're trained soldiers armed to the teeth. We're going to have trouble here, even if none of their elites were sent. Good luck, Hana."

"Thanks. Good luck to you too!" Hana ducked behind the computer and pulled her pistol from it's holster. She prepared to take aim at the Talon agents in the VTOL when a second arrived. And a third. "Oh, good. And here I thought this was going to be easy."

Security had already been evacuating civilians, as soon as the VTOL had first shown up on radar. The arena was nearly empty now, except for Hana, the other pilot, and the three talon agents from the first VTOL who had dropped through the hole. The two MEKA pilots started firing, dropping the first agent before he could react, while the other two moved to cover behind anything they could find. The other pilot next to Hana spoke again "If we can keep killing them as they drop in, they can't overwhelm us. We need to hold out until security returns. The other pilots are doubtless on their way, too."

Hana nodded. "You're surprisingly calm for this."

He laughed. "I'm on the verge of panic and wondering how long my family will have to go before they know I'm dead. But I can't let anyone see that, now can I?"

Hana grinned "So that makes two of us. Right then." Another aircraft flew past the hole, and Hana groaned. "More Talon? Haven't they sent enough?" But as the figures in the craft disembarked, the talon operatives turned and started shooting. "Not Talon, then? Looks like we got our backup early! Let's take the fight to them!" Hana stood from her cover and started firing, taking a talon agent out while he was focused on the new arrivals. The other pilot fired at the last of the Talon soldiers who'd made it through the hole, taking him out.

"We've got a moment of respite. How much ammo do you have?"

"Enough. We should start our retreat now, though. The soldiers who dropped in here are down and there's doubtless fighting elsewhere. Maybe we can get up onto the roof, and help whoever's up there."

"Agreed. You should be glad the tournament's going to be cancelled, I'd have kicked your ass, Hana."

"Pff, as if. I'd run circles around you." Both pilots ran to the roof access. On the roof, Hana watched as a huge figure stepped out of one of the VTOLs, with a gauntlet no one couldn't recognize. He smiled, and watched his opponents fight. Then, he sprinted forwards in the blink of an eye, grabbing one of the fighters by her neck.

"Alright men, clean up. I got what I came here for. Pick up the pieces and then back to base." The woman in his grip kicked and writhed, shouting obscenity. However, his grip was far too powerful for her to break, and soon he was back on the VTOL, which was taking off.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lena was thrown into a cage on the VTOL, the door was locked, and the pilot took off. Doomfist and the talon operatives who'd remained on the VTOL sat as it flew. 

"So, I bet you're wondering why I didn't just outright kill you. Well you're just going to have to keep wondering. No sense in spelling out my plans to an enemy." Doomfist grinned, as if he knew Lena had actually expected him to elaborate. "I watched movies when I was a kid too, girl. Don't think I'm going to fall for the same trap any villain in them does. Oh, and don't try to fight. After all, you'd just sign your own death warrant."

Lena watched out the window as the convention center faded in the distance.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The remaining talon agents had been easy to combat, having become leaderless and outnumbered. Soon it was just Winston, Mei, Hana, and the other MEKA pilot standing on the roof, watching Doomfist's VTOL disappear. Winston's expression was unreadable, though everyone could tell he was barely containing his rage when he spoke. "He. Took. Lena."

Hana deeply wished she'd had her MEKA, not for the first time that day. She could fly after the VTOL, and try to get the woman back. "What... What do we do? None of us can fly, and it's not like we can track that once it's out of our sight."

Mei thought for a moment, then spoke. "Maybe we can." She opened her communicator and made a call. after a brief delay, Sombra picked up. 

"Hola? Something up over there?"

Mei nodded. "Sombra, can you possibly track one of Talon's VTOLs?"

Sombra considered, then grinned "Provided at least one talon agent hasn't bothered to change his password, yeah. And I'm pretty sure I know at least one who wouldn't." After a short delay of Sombra going through each account who's username she'd recorded, she got access. "Got it! now which bird did you want to track?"

"It would have been one of the ones sent to the Starcraft tournament. Check to see if you can see Doomfist listed as one of the agents on board."

Sombra blanched. "Wait, _Doomfist_ was there personally? Dios Mio, I'm glad I didn't go now. It's coming up now, why do you need him tracked? You that eager to get yourself killed?"

Mei shook her head. "He grabbed Lena, then jumped back on and took off."

Sombra's expression darkened. "They have Lena... that can't be good. Last time an Overwatch agent was at talon's mercy, Widowmaker happened. I'm checking Talon's official messages to see if anything's been said yet... Oh Shit. Oh that's _not_ good."

Winston nearly pushed mei out of the way to ask "What's not good? Sombra, what are you seeing?"

Sombra shuddered, then quoted the email "Doomfist is reporting a successful capture, prepare the med bay for the procedure, and a plane for immediate takeoff once complete. Destination, Kings Row. Operation Name, Widowmaker mk2. from Talon's chief of medical staff."

Winston would have paled, if it was possible for a gorilla to do so. "They can't be... Wait, that's awfully fast for what they did to Widowmaker."

"It is. I have a hunch that they might be using a different tactic here. Either way, Doomfist's bird isn't listed on the active craft list. I can't track it. How long would it take you to get to King's Row? Ooh... you might have a problem. Three more talon birds inbound, and another three behind them. And some of them have elites listed as active operatives. Not Reaper or Widowmaker, but you're still going to have a fight on your hands."

"Of course we will. We can hold out here but, I don't like the idea that they're going to attack King's Row at the same time. We can't be everywhere... Though from the sounds of it, They're after Emily in particular. Sombra, I think now's the time for our secret weapon. You need to get to King's Row before Lena and get Emily out of there. Recapture Lena if you can. If not, leave her."

Sombra nodded, and turned to leave. "Got it. Sombra, offline." The call cut out.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sombra grabbed a civilian disguise from her room (jeans, a t-shirt and a hoodie to hide her distinctive hair and implants.) and ran down to the Gibraltar Hanger "Athena! How fast can you get me to King's Row?"

Athena gave her estimate, and Sombra shrugged. "It'll have to do. Let's go!"

The plane took off, and Sombra watched as Gibraltar shrank in the distance. Athena wasn't wrong, when they needed to these birds could really move.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In under an hour, the aircraft was hovering over Emily and Lena's apartment in King's Row. Sombra left a translocator on board, and dropped down onto the balcony. First trying to kick the sliding door open, then growling as she did nothing but hurt her foot. She took a step back and prepared to ram her shoulder into it. Inside, Emily watched and pressed the 'open slider' button as Sombra stepped back, and suppressed laughter as Sombra threw herself through the now open door, sprawling onto the ground with a grunt of pain. Before she could right herself, Emily moved over and placed a foot on her back. "So, mind telling me why you're trying to break into my home?"

Sombra growled. "I'm with Overwatch! Talon's trying to kill you, and you need to come with me now or they're going to succeed!"

Emily shook her head. "Yeah, I'd believe that excuse when a stranger tries to break into my home."

Sombra pointed out the window. "See that there? That's an Overwatch VTOL. check the paint job yourself, it's the real deal. Winston sent me."

Emily thought for a moment. "Is Lena with you? I don't see why they'd send you and not her to come get me."

Sombra lied through her teeth. "Yes."

Emily stepped backwards, off of Sombra and helped her to her feet. "So, how do you suggest we get on board? There's not exactly a rope."

Sombra grinned. Petty revenge was the best kind of revenge. "Like this." She stepped forwards, grabbed Emily, and Translocated them both onto the VTOL. Emily almost immediately doubled over, clutching her stomach. "Oh, sorry about that. I'm used to it by now but Translocating has a rather nauseating effect on first timers."

Emily coughed, still trying to keep her lunch down. "You don't... say? Coulda warned me about that."

Sombra stuck her tongue out. "You could have opened the door before I tried shoulder bashing it."

Emily shot back. "You could try acting like less of a child."

Sombra honestly had no response. She had to admit, she was being petty. Below, they heard a voice. "Em? I'm home!"

Emily turned. "Wait, I hear Lena's voice. I thought she was with you?"

Sombra's eyes widened "I might have lied a tiny bit for your safety. Please step back from the edge before she sees you. Athena? Please take us to Watchpoint: Gibraltar. Preferably quickly."

Emily ignored Sombra and stepped to the door, looking down. "Lena, are you there?"

Tracer blinked to the balcony, first looking down below at the city, then she looked up, smiling. "There you are! 've been lookin all over King's Row for you, love!" Just before she looked up, Sombra noticed something around the point where her neck met her skull. A scar, which looked fairly recent.

Then she raised her pulse pistols. 

Emily gasped, diving backwards before Lena could fire. "What the hell, Lena?!"

Sombra helped Emily to her feet, as the VTOL flew off as fast as Athena could move it. "Talon got a hold of her. That scar on her neck, I bet it was from an implant they're using to control her. Can't be helped now, but hopefully when we have backup we can get her restrained and I can deactivate it. For now though, I have to get you out of here."

Emily seemed on the verge of tears, now. "So... The Lena I knew might be dead, is what you're saying. They might have turned her into another Widowmaker."

Sombra shook her head. "They can't have, not this quickly. It's barely been five hours since they grabbed her. Widowmaker's capture and subsequent control took weeks. They have to have done this with some sort of implant. They're getting reckless. Implants can fail, and can be hacked."

Emily nodded, still in a state of shock. It didn't even occur to her that it was odd that the woman who'd rescued her knew so much about Widowmaker's control. Lena's figure on the balcony shrunk away, and soon disappeared, too far away to see anymore.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lena jumped off the VTOL as it landed in the Talon base's hangar. She returned to the room from which she'd been sent out, walked willingly into the cage within, and sat down as it's lock engaged. Then, she closed her eyes and laid back. A quiet hum emanated from the base of her skull, and she sat up, opening her eyes "H-huh? I must have fallen asleep..." She moved herself up against the corner of her cage, looking around.

In an adjoining room that watched Lena's through a one way mirror, Reaper's eyebrow raised "So she thinks she's asleep, when the chip is active?"

The Talon scientist nodded. "It's the best way to control her. On such short notice, we didn't have time for anything as extensive as Widowmaker's reprogramming, so to make her into a weapon on short notice, we had to use this implant chip." An image of the chip appeared on a screen on the wall. "It's actually remarkably simple- it taps into her nervous system, giving us full control of her entire range of emotions, her actions, anything you could think of. We could make her breakdance if we wanted to, or jump off a building." Reaper cut the scientist off before he could continue.

"Great. So we've got this chip that lets us control everything about what she does and she thinks she's just asleep while it's active. That's all well and good, but I don't see what Doomfist wants from her. I still say we should just kill her and move on."

Doomfist entered the room, shaking his head "You still only see things in the short term, Reaper. I look to the long game. As we develop the chip's software, we'll be able to control her 24/7 instead of the bursts of time the chip can function currently. Once we can do that, we can use the chip for interrogation. You know how effective torture can be to extract information, but imagine if our distinguished guests willingly gave the information away? How much time that would save, how much better we'd be at gathering and using this information?"

Reaper nodded "All well and good, yes, but what happens if the chip gets hacked? Sombra wasn't the only smart person with a keyboard in the world, and definitely not the only one who got themselves modified to be even better at interacting with all things electronic."

The scientist laughed. "Our best and brightest designed that chip's firewalls. Even _Sombra_ would have found it impossible to break into. We used data retrieved from her communicator to create them, after all."

 _Which, if I remember correctly, Sombra specifically told me were outdated by multiple months. One of the various ways she threw talon off._ Reaper thought. But of course, he said nothing. Simply turned back to the room with Lena's cage, and pointed out that the food tray they'd left was empty. "She's also out of water, unless you think starving and dehydrating your new weapon is a good idea." With that, he left the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With this ends by far, my longest chapter to-date! Hope you all liked it. Can't have the heroes win every battle, after all~
> 
> LaHechicera: Sombra's discord username. Translates to 'The Enchantress'
> 
> Bit: a unit of data. As a small child, Sombra had that nickname as her affinity for computers and machines was present even from a young age. As mentioned in Ch2, Reaper would know about the nickname through correspondence with Sombra's mother.
> 
> Lena's chip: Based on the chips ADVENT uses in Xcom 2 to control their soldiers. Functions as a link between the receiver and either a computer or another living being with a similar chip. Allows the source to control the receiver's every action, if given direct attention. Allows general instruction when dealing with multiple receivers and a single host.


	7. Group Up With Me!

Winston, Mei, Hana, and the other MEKA pilot sat at one of the tables in the convention center, after the fighting. On a holo-screen, Sombra sat with Emily back at Watchpoint: Gibraltar. Winston shook his head. and it was easy to tell when he spoke he was barely containing his rage. "They. Took. Lena. We have to get her back. Now." Sombra shook her head, then spoke.

"I agree with you that we have to get her back, but we can't do it now. Talon's bases are fortresses. With how few we number we'd be gunned down long before we reached Lena. They likely took her to one of the sites in Europe, considering her mission in King's Row. The ideal one for them would be in Germany- It's far from civilization, and built into a valley so there's only one way in. Most of Talon's scientists were staffed there, so any new tech would be set up at that site before it was sent out- which is why I think they brought her there." Sombra brought up a screen to show the group. "The most recent map that I have of that place shows that they'd keep cells in this set of rooms." A hallway and set of rooms highlighted, then a path from there to the base's entrance did as well. "As you can see, we'd need to fight through nearly the entire base to get to her. The sheer number of Talon operatives between us and Lena would make Helix balk at trying to take it head on."

Mei spoke up, sitting forwards and pointing out another room "What about here? Your map says this room is adjacent to the outside- Could we break our way in through here, and fight our way to Lena that way? It'd cut the distance we'd have to go down by more than half. They'd have much less time to respond, and that means we'd fight fewer troops."

Sombra considered it, then bringing up a second screen, (a snapshot of that room in particular through a camera) shook her head again. "The walls are way too thick, and there's no windows. I'm not kidding when I say there's only one entrance to this place. Even if we could, That room is one floor below the barracks- It'd be like throwing a rock at a hornet's nest. But your comment about fighting fewer troops... Hmm. There's gotta be a way to get them to bring Lena to us."

Hana and the other MEKA pilot conferred for a brief moment in Korean, then she brought their idea up. "If we make the location of that base public, surely the UN would pressure Helix or it's member nation's armed forces into doing something? We could assault with the backing of a real army!"

Winston sighed, and leaned forwards sadly. "We can't. Even if we're doing the right thing, it would be their duty to bring us in, too. Remember, the Petras act is still in place, so Overwatch activity is still illegal. Frankly, I'm surprised police haven't arrived to take us away yet."

The other MEKA pilot glanced around before speaking. "About that... nothing has hit the news about this attack yet, but MEKA has stepped in with local government. As thanks for your assistance, they requested the police give all Overwatch members a head-start on getting away. Since you were unarguably doing the right thing here, they've agreed. In addition, Hana is accompanying you. As of three minutes ago, her official assignment is to assist 'The brave group who defended numerous civilian lives from Talon forces' in retrieving one of their operatives. As for me, I was given a week of leave. Sorry Hana, you got the short end of the stick on this one."

Hana blinked. "Wh- _What_?! why the hell were you informed and I wasn't?"

The other pilot looked surprised. "You weren't? The message was sent to us both. In any case; You have been assigned _one_ MEKA, Hana. Try not to wreck it or blow it up. Or both."

Now Hana looked sheepish "Oh, right... My communicator. It's uh... still on the stage. I dropped it when the fighting started."

Winston resisted the urge to facepalm, then stood. "Right, we shouldn't make the police wait to give us our head start. Everyone on the plane. I suppose that means you too, miss... Hana, was it?"

Hana nodded. "Hana Song. Though, a lot of people just call me by my stream name, D.va."

The group made their way to the Overwatch plane, and Athena started the engines to get them back to Gibraltar. Hana said her goodbye to the other MEKA pilot, (secretly relieved that she wasn't the one with leave- Having nothing to do made her nervous, and she couldn't concentrate on anything while nervous.) While they flew, the conversation on just how to take on the task of rescuing Lena continued.

Sombras holo-screen hovered above one of the tables on the plane, as she brought her newest plan up. "So, Hana's comment about publicly announcing the location gave me an idea. Sure, we can't attack it ourselves, but if we announce it, the Talon council is smart. They'd move their prisoner. When they do, they couldn't do it with their whole army or it'd become obvious that the base had been abandoned, and that large of a force would have an impossible time staying hidden. When they move her, it'd likely be with a small force just large enough to keep her secure, but not large enough it would risk the base's defense. We still need a larger force, though. We have no one with any sort of medical skills, and only four combat-ready operatives. Emily is still a civilian, and I'm guessing Winston would object to me finding her a rifle to bring so we'd have five, despite the fact that it was her idea in the first place."

Winston nodded. "That I would. We can't just go arming any civilian who crosses our path."

Emily barged her way into the holo-screen's field of view, and Sombra yelped as she was pushed aside. "But I want to help! I want to fight for Lena. She'd do the same for me!"

Mei shook her head, her expression downcast. "Emily, don't go throwing away the fact that you've never killed someone! You don't want to know how it feels. I only fought back in Antarctica because it was my life or death, and we'll get Lena back one way or another. You don't need to arm yourself."

Before Emily could respond, Another holo-screen appeared with an incoming call, from McCree. After Winston answered, McCree's face appeared, his expression grim. "I just saw the news. Doomfist's got Lena, then?" Winston nodded, and McCree shook his head. "Damn. Well, some things are bigger than personal grudges. I'm officially answering the recall."

Sombra forced her way back into the screen's view and spoke up. "I hope you've got about eight friends who're ready and willing, cowboy. Five of us aren't going to take on a Talon transport and win."

McCree laughed "Sorry, just me. I'm not long on the whole 'friends' thing, considering I'm a wanted man."

A third holo-screen popped up, but this time, everyone was confused as to who would be calling. Winston looked around "Any of you know who this is?"

Mei shook her head, as did Hana. McCree shrugged, and Sombra considered, then shrugged too. "Last name Oladele? No idea."

Winston tentatively tapped 'Accept call' and stepped back so everyone could get a view. The three holo-screens on the table changed positions to make a triangle so that the three callers could all see each other. "Is that... a little girl? Winston, tell me Overwatch's contact info isn't public knowledge and that you CHANGED it if it is!" Sombra groaned.

The girl on the other end shook her head. "I've spent most of the last few days trying to get this call! My name is Efi Oladele. And I've been trying to contact you, because I knew Doomfist was coming back. He destroyed Numbani airport recently, and I had a feeling it wasn't long before he attacked again. Now he has, and he's taken a friend of yours. I want to help."

At this, everyone looked a bit skeptical. McCree was the first to voice his doubts. "Uh, sorry if I'm judging a book by it's cover, but you're just a little girl. How're you gonna help us fight Doomfist?"

Efi grinned. "I may be little, but just a girl I am not! I am an inventor. And I present to you, ORISA!" A much larger figure stepped into frame, leaning down so it could be seen. "She's based on the designs of the OR-15 units that Doomfist destroyed, but I've made several upgrades so that won't be happening again!"

The large omnic, Orisa, Waved at the assembled viewers "Hello! I am Orisa. My primary function: Keeping you safe. Efi has requested that I join you."

Winston smiled. "We'd be glad to have you, Orisa. Can you meet us in Gibraltar? The old watchpoint's location should be public knowledge, and its not as abandoned as most think."

Efi nodded. "I'll arrange for her flight! I hope you get your friend back."

Sombra smiled for the first time since returning with Emily. "With 6, we might stand a chance... might."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn Petras act getting in the way of everything.


	8. Sombra's Message To The World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Getting this one out quick after the last because it's going to be short.

Mei finished preparing, and looked up at Sombra. "Are you ready? I still can't believe you're doing this..."

Sombra laughed, then shook her head. "Ready? I don't think I'll ever be. But it has to be done."

Mei nodded. "Alright... We're going in three... two... one..." She gave Sombra a thumbs up, and Sombra's expression changed to one of serious nature.

Sombra spoke into the microphone, as the signal went out to anything that would receive it- Televisions, Radios, Websites, anything Sombra's influence could touch now broadcast her voice. News agencies around the world reacted quickly, picking up her signal and repeating it to anyone on the right channel. Athena automatically translated into any language suitable to the area. "Greetings. My name is Sombra. Many of you probably know it. The terrorist organization known as Talon would have you believe me a collective of B-list movie hackers, all slain by their agents. They couldn't be spouting bigger lies. I am Sombra, and they failed to kill me. For their betrayal, I will watch them burn." A map of the German wilderness where the Talon base was hidden appeared next to Sombra on any video-capable devices, and a holo-screen projected from non-video capable devices displaying it as well. "This is a Talon Blacksite in Germany. On this projection are exact coordinates, and a map of the base. All news agencies, governments, and companies like Helix, are receiving a copy of this projection now. It's time for the world to show Talon that it won't be pushed around. It's time to go on the offensive." Sombra moved her gloved hand, and the projection moved with it, highlighting areas. "Here is the only entrance to the base- the hardest part will be getting in. I'd suggest dropping a bomb on the Blacksite and being done with it, but they have prisoners, and innocents besides." 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------

Talon scientists and agents alike watched the broadcast, staring at the screen in disbelief. None of them had imagined Sombra lived, and certainly none believed she would do _this._ Elite agents began giving orders, moving agents to prepare a defense, and Scientists to transports to escape. Among the most guarded of the transports held the cage with Tracer inside. Their destination was another Talon Blacksite in Europe, though the Talon council knew this was only a bandage for the problem- As long as Sombra remained alive, she could pinpoint any of their bases and bring down the UN's wrath like a guided missile.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------

Sombra's broadcast continued. "And... I'm aware I probably won't be believed. After all, who would trust me? I wouldn't. But... Talon took everything from me. Friends. Family. A chance at a normal life." Her voice was breaking now. "And for that, _I will see them ruined._ Make no mistake, I do not do this for the good of the world." With the last words, her expression contained fury, white-hot and honed. "This is _revenge._ Sombra offline." With that, the broadcast ended.


	9. Ambush

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Boy this chapter is long overdue. I originally wrote it the day after chapter 8 but then chrome crashed when I hit sumbit and I lost the whole damn thing and just about lost the will to keep writing this fic for a while. Anyway, Here's chapter 9, the end of Arc 1! It's time for Saving Cadet Oxton.

It took a few days for everything to fall into line. The UN took time to deliberate about Sombra's message, and the possibility of it being a trap. Talon took time to fully prepare its transports, and all the while, the Overwatch agents waited. While they waited, Sombra began to work with Winston to fill gaps in their database on Overwatch Agents.

"Right, so I just tap any field and it'll pop up a keyboard for me to edit?" Sombra asked.

"Yes. Feel free to add or remove any information as you find it." Winston confirmed. He was a little wary of letting Sombra into the database, but he realized that had she wanted to betray them, it would have happened already. Sombra began opening entries and changing information to be accurate. When she was done, the entries that had been changed were the following:

Agent Gabriel Reyes:  
Status: KIA, Switzerland Explosion -> Active  
Station: Blackwatch Commander -> Mercenary, working for Talon.  
Aliases: None -> Reaper  
Relations: None.  
Base of Operations: Overwatch HQ -> Varies (Talon Reassigns often)

Amélie Lacroix:  
Status: Missing. -> Active.  
Station: Civilian. -> Elite Talon Assassin  
Aliases: None -> Widowmaker  
Relations: Gérard Lacroix, Husband.  
Base of Operations: Paris -> Varies (Talon Reassigns often)

Agent Gérard Lacroix:  
Status: deceased, unknown. -> deceased, Widowmaker.  
Station: Anti-Talon operations  
Aliases: None  
Relations: Amélie Lacroix, Wife.  
Base of Operations: Overwatch HQ

Agent Ana Amari:  
Status: deceased, Talon Assassin -> deceased, Widowmaker.  
Station: Captain.  
Aliases: None.  
Relations: Fareeha Amari, Daughter.  
Base Of Operations: Overwatch HQ  
Special note: "Please, deny my daughter permission to join. I want her to be safe." -Ana Amari

After that, Sombra had no more information to give on the agent roster. Instead, she opened a new file.

Agent Sombra:  
Status: Active.  
Station: Newly Recruited.  
Aliases: Sombra.  
Relations: None.  
Base Of Operations: Watchpoint: Gibraltar.

Winston blinked. "You... made yourself a file?"

Sombra turned, closing the window. "Yeah, I feel like if you all are going to trust me, I might as well make that trust a two way street." She sighed, then laughed. "You should feel honored, this is more info than Talon has on me. Or rather, more than they managed to keep since I hacked their database and deleted everything on me."

Winston laughed in return. "I suppose it is." Athena's voice broke the laughter.

"Surveillance indicates the Talon transports are about to leave. I've highlighted the one most likely to be carrying Agent Tracer. I've also readied a jet."

"Thank you, Athena. Sombra, looks like it's our time to go. You're sure you can disable the chip?"

"Positive. I could get through the firewalls with my eyes closed."

The agents assembled on one of the overwatch jets, and soon it was in the air. Halfway to their destination, Sombra noticed something moving in the cockpit, where none of them were (since Athena could fly on her own) and decided to investigate. Upon her approach, Emily stepped out and smiled, sheepishly. Sombra seemed surprised, as did Winston.

"What are you doing here, Emily? You know it's too dangerous to bring a civilian into a combat area." Winston scolded.

Emily shook her head. "I'm not going anywhere. You're all fighting to get Lena back, and I'm helping too, however I can."

Winston backed down before it turned into an argument, recognizing the same sort of determined fire that Lena got any time she really wanted to do something. Emily wasn't going to give up. When the plane reached its destination, they embarked. They set up in the wilderness to get the drop on the talon transport, and Athena took the plane back off to come land later. As the talon transport approached, they went over their plan one final time.

Sombra created a small map out of light with her implants, pointing at where the transport would be when they attacked. "Alright, Here's the plan. This transport is, according to the documents I managed to lift from Talon's servers, guarded by two platoons of soldiers, and two elites. They're both heavily armored, combat-class Omnics from an Omnium in Siberia. Originally designed to fight the continued battle in Russia, until talon captured them, and freed them from the control of the Omnium's God AI. They'll be difficult to take out, as they have many of the strengths that combat omnics from the crisis had, heavy armor, strong weaponry, and so on. I plan on translocating in, getting their attention, and pulling away as many of them as I can, hopefully including one of the elites. While they're chasing me, the rest of you drop in and kill the ones who stay behind, and secure the truck with Lena inside. Then I bring the ones chasing me back, and we clean up shop. Then I just shut off the chip controlling Lena, and we're golden."

McCree rolled his eyes. "Gee, when you put it that way, fighting forty talon goons and two elites doesn't seem that bad. We only need to do it without any of us getting shot once, since none of us are skilled doctors."

Hana grinned, performing a final systems check on her MEKA. "Between my defense matrix, Orisa's shield, and Winston's barrier, we should be fine. Those Talon bastards won't know what hit 'em."

Orisa, for her part, was doing her own systems check to ensure no part of her arsenal would function at anything less than 100%. "Affirmative. My shield will protect us."

Emily brought her own point up, somewhat concerned. "Alright, two questions. One: What happens if they catch you? And two: What do we do if someone working for Talon activates the chip and takes control of Lena?"

Sombra's expression darkened. "Well, if they catch me, in simple terms, I'm fucked. And if they activate the chip, well, I'll just have to figure out how to disable it without being able to make direct contact since she'll doubtless be making that hard."

Before the conversation could continue, they heard the transport approaching. Sombra signaled for the rest of them to take positions, and Winston ushered Emily as far back as he could to keep her out of the fighting for as long as possible. Then, Sombra made her move.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The talon operatives walking with the truck were mostly silent, though occasionally complaints or random conversations broke out between them. As the Truck and it's guards exited a clearing, one started voicing his pains.

"I'm telling you, we were sent out here to die. No one in their right mind believes Overwatch won't come for their agent, and we're all sitting ducks in the crossfire." The agent moaned. The agents around him rolled their eyes.

"Mendez, Shut up." Another spoke. "You've been doing nothing but complain for the entire time we've been marching. Do you really want to be back at the base where the UN is besieging? Staying there is as guaranteed a death as a brawl with Doomfist. You should be glad we're on transport detail."

The complaining operative, Mendez, continued his complaints. "Yeah, but why us for _this_ transport? We're not the best armed, or the best trained. Leric's squad would have been perfect for this, but they chose ours, while Leric's group gets to take a plane with a few scientists out to a site in Asia."

"Well, maybe we drew the shit end of the stick. Someone had to."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Let's just keep moving."

"I thought you'd never say it, Mendez."

A new voice broke into the conversation, coming from above them. "Hey boys and girls, miss me?" At the sound, every Talon operative, including the two Elites, turned and looked. Sombra stood on top of the truck's cab, grinning down. Then, she lept down, landing on one of the operatives to break her fall, and took off in a run into the woods. Mendez was unfortunate enough to have been the nearest to the truck, so he was flattened to the ground when Sombra jumped down, a shoeprint now adorning his face as he looked up from his prone position, dazed. 

A good eighteen of the soldiers, as well as one of the two elites, rushed off after Sombra. The elite turned back just before leaving sight of the truck, and shouted. "She can't run for long. I doubt we'll be gone three minutes." Before turning back and following the operatives into the trees.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As one, the Overwatch agents broke from cover and dropped down, taking down as many Talon agents in the initial confusion as they could.

Winston landed on an agent, grabbed another by his chest armor and threw him into a third, taking them all out of the fight at once. Then, he swung his tesla cannon in an arc, electrocuting another pair of agents.

Orisa, without the movement provided by Winston's jump, started to lay down suppressive fire from behind a barrier. She created a glowing green orb that dragged two Talon operatives out from their cover behind the truck into her line of fire, and they both fell under the rapid-fire blasts.

Hana shouted into her mic, which echoed out of speakers on the MEKA's sides. "Oh baby, it's time!" Her MEKA rocketed forwards, slamming one talon operative back and into a tree, then stepping on him as it turned to face down two more. They got their bearings rather fast, as they started firing, but Hana raised her defense matrix, and grinned through her cockpit. "Denied~ Better luck next time!" Her MEKA stomped forwards, forcing the two agents back- Directly into Orisa's sight, where they were blown away by her gun. "Yeah! D.va 3, Talon 0."

Orisa spoke up "I believe that would be D.va 1, Orisa 4, Winston 5, Talon 0. If you are keeping score."

D.va rolled her eyes, not bothering with a response and instead wheeling her mech around to face down the elite, who had rallied his remaining troops to him, except for one who had disappeared early in the fight. Raising her matrix again, she destroyed their incoming fire. "Ooh, you almost got me with that one! Try again! Not quite good enough!" Her taunting clearly pissed several of the operatives off, as they turned their attention from her allies to her.

McCree chose this time to make his appearance. A flashbang flew from the woods and went off, disorienting the Talon agents around it's detonation. Quick shots from his revolver downed them before they could recover, and he still had enough bullets to place four shots into the Omnic Elite's back before he had to reload. When the Elite turned around and brought his SAW to bear, McCree prepared to dive out of the way before it could start firing- but was startled out of his plan by the appearance of a large spire of ice between him and his opponent.

Mei seemed as startled as McCree was, staring at the spire of ice. "D-did I do that?" She looked down at her cryogenic blaster, and it's fuel readout wasn't nearly as low as it should be for creating such a large structure. Before she could really consider, Talon agents rounded the sides of the ice structure and began their counterattack. She and McCree fought back, and two more Talon agents fell before Mei got shot in the stomach. She gasped, dropping to her knees and clutching at the wound. As she did, she vaguely noticed Winston leaping over the truck and landing on the operative who'd shot her. As her mind worked through the pain, she suddenly felt extremely cold, all the way down to the bone. Her eyes shut, as she tried not to panic. and she had a fleeting thought of the possibility of going into shock, or maybe this was all a dream and she was still in her cryo pod in Antarctica. When she opened them again, she saw McCree staring at her. The pain had vanished, which was even stranger. "What... What happened?" She asked.

McCree took a step back. "M-mei... you just froze solid for a second. And now your shot wound's gone. What _happened_ in that cryo pod?"

Mei shook her head. "We'll figure that out later. We need to keep fighting!" McCree nodded, turned, and ran around the spire of ice to take more shots at the omnic elite, who in the interim between Mei getting shot and her opening her eyes what felt like a moment later, had become the last Talon operative standing. Soon, he too was fallen. The whole battle had taken scarcely forty seconds. The Overwatch agents assembled, and Hana saw the hole in Mei's uniform, her eyes widening with fear. "Mei! Are you alright?" She ejected from her MEKA, running to Mei's side to check. "Wait... There's no bullet wound? Did it somehow get stuck in your uniform?"

Mei looked uncomfortable, both to have Hana examining her so closely, and trying to come up with some explanation. "I... I'm not sure, Hana. I'm not injured, but by any right, I should be. You need to get back in your MEKA though, the rest of the Talon force will be returning soon, unless they already caught Sombra."

Hana nodded, returning to her MEKA. She resolved to ask Mei what had happened later. As she turned the mech to face where Sombra had ran into the woods, the group saw a purple light approaching fast. They readied for combat as Sombra made it back into the area around the truck, in a hard sprint. Not twenty seconds behind her was the talon force, though it seemed to also be missing a few operatives. Either some had seen the writing on the wall and fled, or Sombra had managed to gun some down during her escape. The Overwatch agents entrenched behind any available cover, orisa's barrier, and winston's shield. Emily, for her part, continued to hide in the trees, waiting for either the fighting to end, as per Winston's instructions, or for the moment where she was needed most. (her own idea.)

\-------------------------------------------------------------------

Doomfist glared at the screens from cameras mounted on the transport truck. "They're going to recapture her." 

Reaper shook his head. "I told you we should have killed her when we had the chance."

The other man turned and glared. "And you also told me Sombra was dead. I can appreciate my agents having a bit of their own motivations, but outright lying to me is not an option. I'll be watching you, Reaper."

Reaper nodded. "I'd expect no less, Akande. You don't become one of the leaders of the world's strongest terrorist organization by being stupid." They both turned back to the screens, and watched as talon agents were cut down, one after another.

Doomfist raised a screen with a concerned looking scientist on it. "Activate the chip. Maybe she'll kill one before she's recaptured." His voice was calm, but the anger was clear. The scientist nodded, and started inputting commands into his laptop. "And get me the names of all the agents who fled the battle- I want to reprimand them personally."

\-------------------------------------------------------------------

The battle had been finished, save for the disappearance of the few talon agents who'd fled. The agents gathered around the back of the truck, which Sombra quickly opened, the electronic lock's security almost laughable. When she did, everyone was startled when Lena shot out of the door, landed on Sombra's shoulders, forcing her down, then raised her foot to stomp on the hacker's head. Orisa launched a glowing green orb that dragged Lena away before she could, and Lena responded with a hail of gunfire. Winston paled. "They activated the chip! We can't hurt her, try to just disarm her!"

Sombra climbed back to her feet, wincing in pain as her shoulders protested. Lena lunged forward, fist cocked back, and Sombra barely ducked out of the way in time. Lena turned, raising her pulse pistols and prepared to fire. Then something bounced at her feet, and she looked down. Then, with a thunderous bang, everything went white.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------

Doomfist slowly lowered his palm from his face. "Did you just make her look directly into a flashbang? Are you TRYING to get her captured?" He thought for a moment. "You said this chip had a shadow mode, in case she broke free of it's control we could just take direct control of her limbs? Activate that with me as a source." He got into a fighting stance.

Reaper started laughing. "Oh this should be good. I'm about to watch a 120 lb pilot try to fight like she's suddenly Mike Tyson."

Doomfist raised an eyebrow. "Surprised you know that name, considering how long the man's been dead." He grinned, and on the screen, Lena did the same.

Reaper grinned through his mask. "What, I'm not allowed to enjoy boxing?"

\--------------------------------------------------------------------

Mei took a step back behind the truck, dodging out of the way of a hail of pulse rounds. Then, the pistols dropped to the ground. Everyone stared. Had Lena broken the control on her own somehow? Then the pilot took a brawler's stance, and confusion marked the faces of most of them. Lena may have been trained in CQC, but she wasn't exactly an expert. Sombra however, recognized the stance and immediately started to back away. "Oh, mierda." She cursed. "The chip must have a shadow function, that's the stance Doomfist uses during training- But I doubt there's going to be any pulled punches here. That's not Lena anymore, we're essentially fighting Akande now."

Winston glared. "Great, just great. Mei, how safe is that cryo blaster of yours?"

Mei looked down, then back up. "Uh... pretty safe? I've used it to temporarily freeze penguins and such, when they fell into the ecopoint, so we could bring them back to health and release them. I'm not sure how it would affect a human, though."

Lena, for her part, had been on the attack the entire time, constantly pressing the agents back. She seemed especially interested in attacking Sombra. "Think he-" Sombra ducked under a jab, then grabbed for Lena's arm, trying to restrain her. "Think he's got a grudge?" She gasped as Lena's knee caught her in the stomach, and stepped back, losing her grip on Lena's arm. Another punch, this time to the side of her head, made her double over. Lena kneed Sombra again, catching her in the temple. Sombra fell, dazed, and clutching her head. Winston was about to forget his intention to not hurt lena and leap at her, hoping to incapacitate when He saw another figure running out of the forest from behind Lena. His eyes widened, and he was about to say something when he realized that would just give Akande the knowledge that he could turn Lena around and kill Emily then and there.

Emily lunged forwards, tackling Lena to the ground, holding both her arms behind her back and kneeling on her thighs. "Stop it, Lena! Hold still!" She glared down. Lena writhed, trying to break Emily's grip, but Emily held fast. She glanced over to see if Sombra was alright, and the hacker slowly sat up, still holding her head in her hands.

"Uuuuugh... my friggin' head... feels like I pounded a bottle of tequila..." Sombra looked up, and saw that Lena was pinned down. "Y-you got her? Nice!" She got to her feet, stepped close, then reached for the back of Lena's neck. As she did, a screen popped up in front of her, and she carefully navigated through the available options. First, she cut off Doomfist's shadow fighting, so that he couldn't control Lena directly. Then, she looked for a way to shut the chip off entirely. Instead, what she found was a notepad file. She opened it, and read it allowed:

"Memo: Talon Control Chip is still in an alpha state, and to prevent it from falling into enemy hands, a failsafe has been added- Assigned computer has failsafe program to detonate chip, to be used while chip is active- will have no effect while chip is inactive or bound to another computer." Her eyes widened, as did everyone else's.

"Well, do something!" Emily shouted, clearly disturbed by the new information. "Before they blow her head up!"

Sombra nodded, digging through the chip with renewed fervor. Back in her element, the pain from Lena's attacks was nearly forgotten. Hana, Winston, and Orisa created a perimeter to watch for talon reinforcements while McCree, Mei, and Emily were either restraining, or preparing to restrain, Lena should she break out of the current holder's grip. Sombra cursed under her breath. "I can't find how to deactivate it."

Emly blanched. "What do you mean, you can't find it?"

Sombra punched the ground in frustration. "I mean, it's not here! There's no way for me to turn it off." Then, she had an idea. "But, I bet I can change the computer it's bound to. Do you have your phone on you, Emily?"

Emily nodded, and handed Sombra her phone. "What're you going to do with... oh." Her eyes widened as the implication hit her. "Wait, you're giving _me_ full control of the chip?"

Sombra laughed. "Yeah, I think you're probably the only one Lena would trust with the ability to directly control everything she does. Also, I feel like that'd be a great move in the bedroom, no?" now that she was making progress, she relaxed and her sarcastic tone returned. Mei facepalmed, while McCree was clearly holding back laughter.

Emily glared. "Sombra! Just change the damn setting already."

"Relax, relax, chica, it's already done." Sombra handed Emily back her phone. "You can turn off the chip with the top button, the second turns it on, and the bottom one opens the menu to reprogram the chip to change what it makes her do. There are a couple presets there already, from the files that were already on the chip. They're "Kill Overwatch Agents" and "Kill Emily" respectively, so I don't think you'll want to use either of them."

Emily pressed the top button, and Lena's eyes closed for a few seconds, before she opened them again, looking up. "What... What the hell happened? Em, what're you doing here, luv? And why are you dressed for combat?" She lifted her head to look around. "And... woah." She caught sight of all the dead talon agents in the area. "You uh, You and the rest of Overwatch do all this?"

Emily shook her head, eyes tearing up with relief. "Just them, Lena. I stayed on the sidelines until I knew I needed to act. Oh god, I'm so glad you're OK..." She leaned down and wrapped her arms around Lena's shoulders, closing her eyes. Then, she thought for a moment. "H-how much of the fight do you remember?"

Lena gently lifted Emily off of her, then stood. "None of it, actually. I remember hearing the fighting going on outside, and then, just as your voices approached the truck door, I blacked out. Now I'm here. What happened?"

Sombra kneeled to check Lena for injuries. "Talon took control of you using a chip they implanted in the back of your neck after your capture. I can't remove it, so I just turned it off and disabled their ability to turn it back on."

Hana, returning from the perimeter they'd made, nodded and laughed. "You really beat the hell out of Sombra while you were under Doomfist's control. I don't think I've ever seen someone incapacitated with two punches and a knee."

Lena flushed red. "I-I did? I'm... sorry, Sombra." She turned, and saw the bruise already forming on the hacker's temple. "Oof, that looks like it hurts."

Sombra grinned, then winced at the pain the action caused. "Like a bitch. But you weren't in control, so I can't really blame you for it."

Lena grinned, then hugged Sombra. "Thanks for helping get me back. I suppose I was wrong about not trusting you."

Sombra rolled her eyes. "Oh, don't go all cliche on me now, Chica."

Lena stepped back, laughing. Then, she blinked forwards, her fist catching Sombra in the jaw, catching her off-guard enough to knock her over. Everyone took a step back, expecting talon to have taken control of her again, somehow. Then she spoke. " _And that's for bringing Emily into a warzone!_ "

Sombra sprawled backwards, holding her jaw. "OW! It wasn't my idea, Lena!" She pointed. "Your girlfriend snuck onto the plane herself, and refused to leave! Winston even told her to stay as far away from the fighting as possible!" Emily helped Sombra to her feet, then stepped forwards and held Lena's arms down again. 

"It's true, Lena. Me coming here was my idea." She looked down, then smiled as Lena pulled her close. 

"And it's a damn good thing she did, too. I don't think we would have been able to get the chip deactivated without hurting you if she hadn't gotten that tackle to your back." McCree pointed out. As he spoke, Athena brought the ship in for a landing, and they quickly cleared enough space for it to land. Lena looked sheepish, and flushed.

"I.. I had assumed It was Sombra's idea... bringing Emily to try to snap me out of hostile control sounded like something she'd do." 

"To be honest, the thought crossed my mind." Sombra shrugged. Then she tenderly touched where Lena had punched her. "Ouch, you really do have a good right hook. That or Doomfist's shadowing taught you how to punch."

Once they were all on board, they took their seats. Emily chose to sit right next to Lena, leaning on her and closing her eyes. Soon, she was asleep, and Lena smiled, wrapping her arms around Emily. Sombra rolled her eyes, and opened up a window to browse the internet, (And look for a way to disguise bruises with makeup) While Mei produced a book to read from her bag. The rest of the agents milled about for a while until they settled for the ride back to Gibraltar.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The talon agent stumbled through the woods, lost and confused. When the fighting started, he'd gotten to his feet and ran blindly into the treeline. The shoemark on his face wiped away, Mendez was in shock. "I'm... the only one left. They're all dead but me." He continued his aimless wandering, until he realized he'd gotten himself hopelessly lost. "Great... and now I'm probably going to die out here. Just my luck." He sat against a tree, and raised his communicator, wincing as he saw the notification that he had been ordered to report directly to Doomfist. "Maybe... maybe I don't go back. I doubt he'll have a commendation for me. Maybe I go to the UN, tell them what I know, and get some sort of witness protection-style shit and they hide me away where Talon won't find me. Yeah. That sounds like a plan. Mendez, Betrayer of talon and free man. Nice ring to it." He looked around, then leaned back, groaning. "If I ever find my way out of the woods, anyway."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (existing information -> Sombra's edits)


	10. Pilgrimage

Sombra, Lena, and Emily sat in the living quarters in Gibraltar. Emily gestured at the map sitting on the table. "So, Winston sent Mei and Hana out to Nepal, right?" Across the table, Sombra lounged reading something on a screen. She nodded, and Emily continued. "Do we know what they're doing there?"

Lena shrugged. "Winston said somethin' about recruiting a new member, a monk who's last known location was the Shambali monastery. I kinda wish I could've gone..."

Sombra lifted an eyebrow. "We're recruiting a monk? Why?"

Lena shrugged again. "I don't know, Winston didn't say."

Sombra thought for a moment, then spoke again. "Wait, why's Hana still with us? Her assignment from MEKA was just to help us retrieve you, Lena."

Athena's voice rang in with the information. "After your rescue, Hana contacted MEKA to request her assignment be officially changed to working with us. They allowed it, so her time with us is indefinite, unless they need to call her back."

Sombra nodded. "Alright, cool. Thanks Athena."

"You are welcome, Sombra."

"Do you know if their comms are active? We might be able to see how they're doing."

"I will attempt a call now." Athena's voice broke for a moment as the call went out. "... Negative. Communicators offline."

The three looked at each other, now worried.

\----------------------------------------------------------------

**Nepal.**

**Mei walked next to Hana's mech, consulting her map on her phone. "Looks like we need to go a bit further up, then the temple should be in sight."**

**Hana grinned, pointing up at the peak. "I'd bet it has a great view."**

**Mei nodded in agreement. Then, she turned to look at Hana. "Hey, you alright? You look... uncomfortable."**

**Hana shuddered. "It's just... really cold."**

**Mei raised an eyebrow. "You're wearing a tight bodysuit on Mount Everest."**

**Hana glared back. "A heavy coat like yours wouldn't fit in my MEKA."**

**Mei shrugged. "You didn't have to bring it, Hana."**

**Hana's face darkened. "I feel safer in my MEKA."**

**"Safer?"**

**Hana shook her head. "I don't want to talk about it."**

**"Alright. If you ever do, let me know, ok?"**

**Hana smiled. "Thanks Mei." She looked up the slope, wondering how far it was to go. "hmm... do you see that up there? What is it?"**

**Mei looked up the slope at the object Mei was pointing out. "I'm not sure..."**

**\---------------------------------------------**

****Talon base, Italy** **

**"Akande, they're in the prime position for detonation."**

**Doomfist nodded. "Do it, then. Remove two obstacles from our path."**

**The man bowed, then pressed the detonator.**

**\---------------------------------------------**

**The object they were looking at exploded, sending a huge wave of snow down at the two Overwatch agents. Mei reacted first, but there was nothing she could do beyond trying to brace herself. Hana reacted a fraction of a second later, turning her MEKA and diving forwards at Mei, positioning the MEKA between Mei and the Avalanche. When it hit the MEKA's back, it fell forwards, and both of them slid down the mountain.**

**Mei opened her eyes slowly. "What... What happened?" She looked up, and saw Hana hanging limp in the MEKA's cockpit, the MEKA itself half buried in the snow. Extricating herself from what snow had covered her (They seemed to have gotten lucky in not having been buried alive) she ran to the MEKA, opening it's emergency eject hatch, and pulled Hana out. She hefted Hana into her arms, holding her close. Standing, she examined the MEKA. When she found the diagnostics, the situation looked grim. According to the readouts, after she fiddled with the controls until it changed to a language she knew, the MEKA was more or less totaled. She consulted her phone again, hoping there was still some power left. Her map display showed that she was too low on the mountain to reach the temple, but the village was near enough that she could probably reach it. She looked down at herself, holding Hana in her arms, and considered. Without the heat of her MEKA, Hana would probably rapidly experience hypothermia. In a snap decision, Mei set Hana on top of the MEKA, opened her coat, pulled Hana close again, then closed her coat around the younger woman. She got to her feet, turned in the direction her GPS indicated lead to the village, and started walking.**

**\-----------------------------------------------**

**Night was beginning to fall, and with it, the temperature reached dangerously low levels. Mei realized she really should have been feeling cold herself, but for some reason she felt fine. She also knew that Hana was not going to be feeling fine if she didn't find warmth, and soon. She increased her pace, reaching the village soon after the sun set. She continued into the village, and called out. "Help! Someone, I need help! My friend is hurt, and she might be suffering from Hypothermia!"**

**She continued, calling again. Suddenly, a golden light enveloped her. She turned to find it's source, an saw an Omnic floating in front of her, with a group of orbs floating around his neck. a short distance off the ground. He raised his hand in greeting. "Hello."**

**Mei smiled. "H-hi! Thank you for your help... but I'm fine." She opened her coat again, pulling out Hana and closed her coat again. "She's hurt, and might be freezing." The omnic nodded, and held his hand out. The golden glow left Mei, and then Hana began to glow with the same light, a small orb floating by her head. Mei bowed as much as she could while still holding Hana. "Thank you!" The omnic gestured for her to follow him, and they went inside a nearby building. "Can I ask the name of our rescuer?"**

**The omnic nodded. "I am Zenyatta. I returned here, to the monastery where I worshipped, To see what has transpired in my absence. I am glad to have been near to assist you."**

**Hana stirred in the corner where they'd laid her. Mei smiled, helping her sit up. "Hey Hana, you're alright! That's great!"**

**Hana held a hand to her head, blinking. "I'm... what? What happened after the avalanche?"**

**Mei brought her up to speed, and Hana looked at Zenyatta. "Wait, Zenyatta? You're the monk we were sent here to find! Well, that's a bit of luck."**

**Zenyatta tilted his head. "Sent here to find me? Interesting. What has caused our paths to align?"**

**Mei nodded. "Winston, our de facto leader, has sent us to ask you if you'd be willing to join us in reforming Overwatch. The world needs us, even if they don't want us."**

**Zenyatta, for a being incapable of changing his expression, managed to look troubled. "I... am afraid I cannot. I admire your willingness to put the safety of others above your own, but I have other duties that keep me from joining you. I am sorry to have wasted the time you spent coming here."**

**Mei looked downcast. "Ah. Well, thank you for helping me and Hana. We hope that in the future, if you find the time, you would consider joining us."**

**"I will consider. For now, feel free to stay here for the night."**

**Thanking Zenyatta again for his generosity, Mei leaned against the wall, and pulled Hana close. Hana fell asleep shortly after, leaning on Mei's shoulder. Before she went to sleep, Mei contacted Winston.**

**Winston picked up on the first ring. "Mei! What's going on over there? We lost contact with you for hours!"**

**Mei sighed. "Avalanche. I got me and Hana back to the town, but we never made it to the monastery. Hana's MEKA is out there somewhere, totaled in the snow. Fortunately, Zenyatta found us. Unfortunately, he has urgent matters that prevent him from joining us, so this trip was a bust."**

**Winston's expression was dark. "Ah. I'm glad to hear you two are alright- We feared the worst. I'll send Lena to come pick you two up." Mei nodded, and Winston hung up the call. Mei looked down at Hana, sleeping in her arms, and smiled, before drifting off herself.**


	11. A Day To Relax

Mei, Hana and Lena stepped off of the Orca, and almost immediately, Winston was there to check both Mei and Hana for injuries. Mei obliged, and afterwards, so did Hana. Then, Mei gave their mission report she'd been writing on the flight back. 

"An avalanche from an unknown source drove us off course for the temple, but we managed to reach the village alive. Unfortunately, the avalanche has also totaled Hana's MEKA. We used the Orca to pull it out of the snow, but it's still going to take a long time to repair without dedicated engineers on staff. In the village, we found the individual you requested we contact, but he has duties that prevent him from joining us."

Winston sighed. "This is an unfortunate outcome, but we knew it might happen. The MEKA's damage is our biggest loss here- We'll need to make finding an engineer to repair it top priority, or hope MEKA will be generous enough to grant Hana a second, which I doubt will happen. For today though, We've been run ragged over the past week and a half- I think all of us have earned a day or two off. I'm putting you two, Lena, and Sombra, all on leave for the next few days. Me, Orisa, and McCree can keep going, as we haven't been out in the field much. But you four must be exhausted."

Mei's expression seemed relieved. "Thank you, Winston." 

Hana seemed nervous about the prospect of days off, but she smiled too. "Yeah, thanks. It'll be good to sit down for a while."

Lena herself was already gone deeper into the base. When Hana and Mei caught up, she was in the main living quarters, kneeling in front of a pile of movies, while Emily gave her opinion. Sombra was nowhere to be seen. Hana dropped onto the couch next to mei and started commenting on movie choices, while Mei left to go find Sombra. As she left the room, she heard Hana groan at a specific choice Lena offered.

"Oh _god_ no, can we please not watch movies I was in? I'd rather not relive the memories of the director hitting on me."

Lena laughed "Alright, I'll avoid movies you were in. I suppose we won't be watching Hero Of My Storm when it comes out?"

"Not with me in the room." Hana shook her head. Lena went back to digging through options.

Mei was now out of earshot, unable to hear the rest of the conversation. She arrived at Sombra's room, and knocked on the door. When she recieved no response, she opened the door. "Sombra?" She called, looking around the room. Then, she saw Sombra kneeling next to a computer set up on a desk. A wire connected what looked like a port on her back to the computer, and she had her eyes closed. When Mei approached, Sombra lifted her head and opened her eyes.

"O-oh, hi Mei. Did I miss something?"

"Yeah, Winston's given us a few days to relax. We're officially on leave, you, me, Hana, and Lena." Mei smiled. Then, her curiosity got the best of her. "What are you, uh... doing?"

Sombra looked back at the wire connecting her. "My implants may be impressive, but they don't have an endless battery life. To do that, I'd need a generator of some kind as part of the implants and I wasn't really ready to have a small nuclear reactor implanted in my spine. So, every few days I have to take an hour or so to recharge my implants. It wouldn't need to be as often or as long, but I never turn them off. Great to hear we got a few days to relax, all this running around is killing my social life."

Mei raised an eyebrow. "I'm detecting a hint of sarcasm."

"Just a hint? What're the rest of 'em doing, anyway?"

"Last I heard, Lena was trying to pick out a movie, and Hana was pleading for it to not be anything she was in."

Sombra suppressed laughter. "Aww, but I want to see Hana's reaction to her own acting." She stood, brushed her augmented hand across the computer screen, then pulled the wire out of her back. The computer shut down, and she grinned. "I was just about done anyway, want to go meet up with them?"

Mei nodded. "Sure, let's go." They both left Sombra's room, Sombra locking the door behind her. Then they made their way back to the common living area, and Sombra dropped herself across a chair, feet up on one arm rest, head on the other. Mei sat down next to Hana, who had taken the spot next to Emily. Lena, after finally finding a movie Hana and Emily could agree on, had climbed onto the couch to share a spot with Emily. Hana leaned on Mei, grinning as the cheesy movie started. 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Egypt

"Ah, Amari. You're just in time. Your position on the stage is just behind the speaker. We don't expect any trouble today, but the brass isn't taking any chances, not with Talon desperate for a win. Be ready to move at any time."

Pharah nodded, taking the steps up to the stage and taking her position. Her arms folded at her waist, and her rocket launcher strapped to the back of her Raptora armor. In front of her, the Helix representative spoke to the assembled crowd.

"Good people, I am proud to announce the completion of a new Helix R&D lab! This lab will be the testing grounds for our new Raptora-6 suits, a prototype of which is demonstrated today by one of our own operatives." He gestured to his left, and Pharah turned her head to look at the man chosen to demonstrate the prototype. He stood and saluted the crowd, then activated the armor's jets, shooting into the air. She smiled, knowing that soon when the armor was distributed to the rest of Helix, her squad would be even better at protecting those who needed it.

Atop a building a fair distance away, Reaper crouched at the top of a set of stairs leading to the roof they were on. Widowmaker lay near the edge, the corner of the building supporting the Widow's Kiss as she aimed. "I have a clear shot on the Helix speaker. Do I take it?"

Reaper shook his head. "As soon as we make ourselves known, Helix soldiers are going to swarm us. There's at least three Raptora-armored squads here, and you can't shoot them all down. We need to wait for evac to be almost here, take the shot, then get out before Helix can react. If you can though, shoot their demonstrator. Putting a hole in the Raptora-6 should slow down development, if not by much. Evac is four minutes out."

Three minutes later, Reaper nodded. "Right. Evac is less than 60 seconds out, take the shot." Then, nothing happened. He turned to widowmaker, glaring. "I said shoo-" He blinked. Widowmaker was slumped, and her arms both hung over the side of the building. Widow's Kiss was nowhere to be seen. Reaper snarled, stepped to the edge, and looked down. The rifle lay in the pavement, the long fall seeming not to have damaged it. He was about to shadowstep down to retrieve it, when another dart shot past his face. He turned to look for the dart's source, then he saw a figure in a long, blue cloak with a face mask, and a sniper rifle of their own strapped over their shoulder. In their hand, they held a dart gun. He glared, then dispersed into a cloud of smoke. The cloud flew down, and reformed with his hand on the rifle. Then, he shadowstepped back up the building, hefted Widowmaker over his other shoulder, and spoke into his comm. "Reaper requesting Evac. Enemy sniper is here and has incapacitated Widowmaker. Mission is failed."

The evac helicopter hovered above the building, and reaper slung Widow's Kiss over his shoulder. Then with his now free hand, he grabbed the rope hanging down, and it began to lift him into the aircraft. He glanced over his shoudler at the sniper, and shifted his weight so that widow's kiss blocked the next dart shot. The dart chipped the paint on the rifle, but otherwise no harm was done. He snarled again. "Amari... I should have known you'd be watching your daughter." As he climbed into the helicopter and lay Widowmaker on one of the benches in the cabin, he sighed. "Another failed mission... The council won't be happy about this. Probably means another mission soon, they won't be happy until we succeed." He sighed, then spoke to the silent cabin. "No rest for the wicked, right?"


	12. Vishkar

Mei looked down at the notes she'd gathered- With Sombra's help. She'd been frozen for a long time, and had a lot to catch up on. Reading about Vishkar's attempts to create Utopeas across the world, she was at first excited- maybe with all-hardlight materials, the world's dwindling supplies of rainforests and other natural places wouldn't be plundered as quickly. Then Sombra handed her the documents detailing Vishkar's newest planned location- smack in the middle of South American forest land. At first the local governments had resisted, but Vishkar seemed content to throw money at the problem until it went away. Mei was less content to see an entire swathe of forest gone, an untold number of animals uprooted from their homes, or driven extinct. She didn't think Sombra had a dog in this fight, but the woman seemed to have her own reasons for opposing Vishkar. Now she stood outside the Vishkar corporate offices, looking up at the imposing building. Supposedly, the entire structure was made of hardlight. When she stepped up to the door, it opened automatically. As she walked inside, she saw various employees milling about, and a smiling woman at the front desk greeted her.

"Hello! You must be Mei. After your message concerning the location of the next Vishkar Utopea, our head architech on the project is eager to meet you. He's in his office, fortieth floor. Elevator is on the left."

Mei nodded her thanks, still struck by the sheer size of the Vishkar building. She supposed since the building was made of hardlight, it didn't actually cost Vishkar anything other than time to create the intricate walkways and decorations that filled the space above her. It didn't even seem like there were ceilings- She felt like she could see straight up to the roof, if she stood in the right spot. Pathways between rooms on higher floors were suspended bridges of light, and she shuddered at the thought of looking down from 40 stories up. Stepping into the elevator, she pressed the button for her floor, and soon stepped out onto one of the highest of the suspended walkways. Soon, she arrived at the office she was looking for. As she stepped inside, A man smiled and waved.

"Ah! So glad to meet you, Mei. I am Sanjay, lead architech on the South American Utopea. I hear you have... concerns regarding it's planned location?"

Mei nodded again, and opened a briefcase holding her notes. She had prepared her argument beforehand, and had been repeating it in her head for a while now. "Yes. If you continue to construct in the planned location, A huge amount of forestland- Protected forestland- will have to be clear cut to make room for the city. This would cause mass migrations of the animals living in the area, or for those unable to migrate, they will simply die. The migration of so many and death of even more will unbalance the ecosystem, and will kill even more. Humanity has already killed off so many species simply because we couldn't, or wouldn't, see the consequences of our actions- Do you want to be the cause of even more?"

Sanjay sat back in his chair, seeming to consider. Then, he smiled again. His grin flashed white- Almost as white as the chair he sat on. "Your concerns do not fall on deaf ears, Ms. Mei. If you would, I could take you to meet our team to discuss further options? We may be able to relocate the planned construction to avoid the loss of life."

Mei smiled. Maybe Vishkar employees weren't as senseless as the company leads themselves seemed to be. "Of course! I'd be happy to." 

Sanjay walked to the door, then opened it, gesturing to follow. "Come, I'll bring you to the team." As she followed, he began to explain Vishkar's plans to construct Utopeas across the globe- To end world hunger, homelessness, poverty. It all sounded very... idealistic. But then again, Mei had always been an idealist. Soon, they were at the room where Sanjay had said the team met. When he opened the door for her, she smiled and walked inside. Then it slammed shut behind her, and she turned to look at the door. "Sorry, Madam. But we can't have you decrying Vishkar's plans publicly. We'll release you after the Utopea is complete- You aren't going to be a prisoner forever."

Mei stared in disbelief. "You can'- you can't honestly think you're going to hold me prisoner?! I'll call the police! The UN! You can't just do this!"

Sanjay shrugged. "I can, and I did. There's no reception in this room- Try calling if you want. As for when your disappearance is noticed- We will simply say we left you on your way, but you never made it home. A tragedy- Crime is still a barricade Vishkar has yet to break. Who knows who could have taken a lone woman walking through the streets? In the future, we will have to provide an escort. Apologies again, Mei. I have pity for you, I do. But we are doing what is best for humanity." 

Mei stepped back from the door, glaring. She looked around the small room. It looked like it had indeed once been a conference room- A screen sat on the wall, with a table and a ring of chairs. Off to the side, a room which's label told her it was a bathroom sat. She shook her head. Did they really expect her not to call for help? She pulled out her phone, and saw that Sanjay had been telling the truth- Unfortunately, there was absolutely no signal. She sighed, and sat down in one of the chairs. Glancing around, she noted that there didn't seem to be any shortage of comforts in the small room- A universal charger sat on a side table, so at least she could use her phone as an electronic book while she was a prisoner. Absentmindedly, she spoke aloud. "I wonder if the screen turns on-" As she spoke, the screen lit up. She looked up at it, confused. "Voice activated? I guess this really was a conference room before I got locked inside. I doubt it's very useful, though." She approached it, and checked all of it's options in turn. Nothing that would let her communicate with the outside, but hey, she could turn on a camera that watched the lobby, so there was that. One last look around the room, and she collapsed into one of the chairs, sighing. She didn't even have Snowball with her. The little drone would be sitting on her table at the watchpoint. She wondered if anyone at the watchpoint would believe Vishkar's lies about what had happened to her. She hoped not. Winston could be a bit too trusting at times (hell, he'd let Sombra onto the base.) so she wasn't sure about him, Or Orisa for that matter, but she was confident Lena, Hana, and Sombra wouldn't buy into the bullshit. As for McCree or Emily, she really had no clue.

 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I'm serious guys, it's been three days since Mei left! surely we would have heard from her by now!" Hana was pacing. Lena was trying to calm her, but Emily agreed.

"Hana's right, something's wrong. It was supposed to be a one day trip- She said herself she'd call us if she was going to be staying longer." 

"What'd Vishkar say when we contacted them?" Hana turned to Lena.

"They said she left after the meeting. Nothing more."

"So, their implication is that she got mugged, or kidnapped, or something, then?"

"I suppose it would be."

"And you don't think Mei could have handled herself?" Hana was exasperated. "I'm telling you, Mei never left that Vishkar building."

Sombra broke into the conversation, entering from the watchpoint's mess. "I'm afraid Hana's right, Lena. We have a problem."

Lena looked incredulous. "What do you mean, we have a problem? Mei's phone's probably just dead."

Hana glared. "For three days?"

"Look." Sombra interrupted again. She raised a hologram screen, then pushed and it increased in size until everyone in the room could see it. It was a camera feed, showing Mei sitting in what looked like a conference room, slowly kicking her feet back and forth. "This is live footage. Trust me, I wish it wasn't." Sombra shook her head. "They have her captive."

Hana's face was red with fury. "If I had my goddamn MEKA I'd-"

"Die trying to break her out? That's Vishkar's corporate headquarters. They have _thousands_ of staff on-site. And even the Architechs are trained combatants. Why do you think the Resistance against them is going so poorly? We need a plan before we try storming the front gates, and all die horribly." Sombra shook her head. "We've rescued one agent from capture, we can do it again."


	13. Rescue

Mei leaned back against the wall, looking around the spare room for probably the hundredth time that day. After she'd read the books she had on her phone, she'd been reduced to examining the room around her or watching the lobby on the conference screen Vishkar hadn't bothered removing when they converted a former meeting room into a makeshift cell. She could probably tell anyone who asked the number of panels on the ceiling without a second thought. The worst of it wasn't the boredom though- She knew back on Gibraltar, Hana was probably a wreck. The MEKA pilot showed the world a brave face at all times, but Mei had seen past it when she found Hana alone in the dark, huddled against a broken MEKA, trying to get restful sleep. She looked around the room again, then lay her head in her arms. The biggest thing the cell was missing was anywhere comfortable to lay down. She stood, and walked up to the door. When she knocked, a female voice answered. 

"Yes?"

"I was wondering if I might be able to get some bedding. A blanket maybe, and a pillow? It's hard to sleep."

"I am sure I can arrange that. Any specific request?"

Mei thought for a moment, and then shrugged. "I don't think so."

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why did she feel so guilty?

Satya walked away from the room where they imprisoned the climatologist. She shook her head- Not imprisoned, held. She was going to be released, just after Vishkar could complete the new Utopea. They were doing what was right for humanity, bringing the world one step closer to paradise!

She reached Sanjay's office, and knocked. When she was let in, she spoke to the lead Architech. "Our pri- Guest has requested bedding. I told her I believed we could arrange."

Sanjay nodded. "It will be sent to her room."

Satya turned to leave, then stopped. "Are we truly going to keep her prisoner?"

"I don't see why it matters, Satya."

"Because she's-" Satya stopped, taking a deep breath to calm herself. "It just doesn't seem ethical. She's being held against her will. Why resort to illegal means to protect the company? We're doing what's right for humanity- We shouldn't need to hide in the shadows like this."

"The ends justify the means, Satya. If you'd rather work somewhere else, I can move you from guard shifts."

Satya shook her head. "It is alright. I will continue my shift."

She left, returning to her spot at the door. Reaching up to activate the microphone, she spoke. "Ms. Mei? Your bedding should be here soon."

The woman inside spoke into her end of the mic. "Thank you."

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Satya sat outside the room a day later. She wondered why Vishkar bothered with a guard- no one had come for the climatologist, so apparently they'd believed the company's excuse. And it wasn't like the woman was really trying to break out. She had tried once, but after it had been ineffective, she had given up that strategy.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_Two days prior_

Mei stood looking at the window. They were far too high up for her to escape through it but... maybe she could get a signal. It didn't open, she had no disillusions about that. But maybe it could be broken. She pulled one of the chairs from the table, and lifted it into her arms- Hardlight materials were surprisingly heavy, for being made of light. Taking a few steps back, She ran at the window, stopping short and hurling the chair at it. 

The chair bounced off like a pinball, and Mei had to jump out of the way to avoid getting hit with it on the rebound, as it bounced first off the window, then the floor. A male voice echoed through the speaker.

"It's a nice try, but the window's made of hardlight too... Keep on trying though, it's very amusing."

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Satya lifted her head as she heard the microphone activate. It didn't seem like the woman was asking for anything but she still listened- and heard the woman talking to herself- it wasn't uncommon, she didn't seem to care if anyone heard.

"Hana... I hope you're alright. I'm sure you're coming... I just hope you get here soon. You wouldn't believe Vishkar's lies, would you? I... I hope not. And the others... I'm sure rescue is coming. There's no way they'd all believe the story. All it would take is one chance..."

Satya frowned. The woman still had hope of rescue? It had been almost a week. A week since this woman had seen any room but this... She shook her head. "I cannot falter now. Vishkar needs me. I am doing what is right. I am... doing what is right. For all humanity."

So why did she feel so guilty?

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sombra stood outside the Vishkar headquarters, her hand on her earpiece. "Lena, you're in position, right?"

"Yep! Pulse bombs in my bag, all ready to go when you give the signal. You know Hana's going to kill us when we get back, right?"

"If we survive."

"You've got a point there. We have to actually succeed at this for Hana to kill us."

"Right, I'm going in. Be ready for my signal."

"Affirmative!" She could almost see Lena's happy salute. activating her cloaking, she slipped in with a civilian walking into the Vishkar building. She weaved through the crowds, ducking into a storage closet. She kneeled, hiding a translocator in the corner. Then, she waited in the shadows. Eventually, an Architech stepped into the closet to claim something from the storage, and Sombra made her move. She lunged out from the shadows, catching the architech in the temple. They dropped like a stone, and Sombra kneeled to rifle through their pockets looking for a security card. When she found it, she cloaked again and left the closet, entered an employee elevator using the card, and selected her floor. So far, so good... The elevator reached it's floor, and she stepped out onto the suspended walkway. Looking over the side made her nearly puke, so she decided to keep her eyes forwards. The camera feed didn't tell her where Mei was, but she assumed the only guarded door she saw was probably it. She cloaked again, and decloaked behind the man guarding the door. She hit him in the back of the head with her SMG, and he dropped. That was... too easy. She made sure he was unconscious, then turned to the door. It was simple to hack into the lock to open it, and she stepped inside. Mei was sitting with her back to the door, but she turned at the sound of the opening door.

"Sombra! You're here!" Mei stood up and approached.

Sombra smiled and nodded. "Yeah. Lena's downstairs waiting for a signal to give us an exit. Come here- and I should warn you, this is not going to feel good."

Mei looked confused, but did as she was asked. When she neared, Sombra wrapped her arms around Mei, and activated her translocator. They appeared in the storage closet, which looked the same except for one detail- the unconscious Architech wasn't there. Sombra didn't give that any mind though, that was just one less way the plan could go wrong. She activated her earpiece, and spoke. "Now, Lena! Give us that exit!"

"You got it! One exit comin' riiight up!" A moment later, a detonation was heard from the other side of the wall. The wall shimmered, but held firm. "Damn!" Lena's voice came through the mic. "That wall's got tough shielding! I've got more though, hang on. You girls might want to brace yourselves, this is gonna be loud!" Sombra was a bit concerned at that, and was more concerned when the sound of three or four primed pulse bombs echoed through the mic. "Bomb's Away!" came the happy voice.

The wall exploded, disappearing into light. The crates in the room however, did not. Mei narrowly dodged one, and Sombra ducked under another. Then a third slammed into her and she yelled in pain, and fell. Mei turned and saw the box had landed on Sombra's leg, and the woman was cursing loudly. "A-Are you alright Sombra?"

"Yeah! I'm fine, I can use my translocator to get out of here, and I can cloak. I'll call you when I'm out. Go!" She waved Mei away. "Before Vishkar's architechs show up and the whole plan was for nothing!"

Mei nodded and sprinted out the new hole in the wall, with Lena looking back at Sombra. "Come on love, let's go! Can't wait here forever, you said it yourself!"

Sombra was about to translocate to escape the box, when she saw where the translocator had flown in the blast- Directly wedged between another crate and the wall. No good trying to use it there. "Lena, go! I'll be fine." Blatant lies. But Lena nodded, and disappeared with Mei into the streets. Sombra lay her head back down, trying to come up with *some* sort of plan.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Satya, after recovering from being knocked unconscious by an unknown assailant, was nursing a splitting headache when Sanjay burst into the room. "Our prisoner's gone! Someone broke her out. Two explosions have been detected near the base of the building- Satya, can you go investigate?" She winced at the noise, holding her head in her hands, but she composed herself. Falling apart like this would be unprofessional- embarrassing. She nodded, and headed out to investigate the explosion, and stood in front of the very closet she'd been ambushed in. She prepared to enter, then pushed the door open- and saw the gaping hole in the wall. She stepped inside, looking around, and saw a woman laying on the ground, firmly pinned in place by a storage crate. They stared at each other for a moment, before the woman spoke.

"... Hey."

Satya wasn't really sure how to respond. The woman was clearly one of the intruders, but why would they leave her behind? She was about to call Sanjay on her communicator when the woman spoke again.

"I don't suppose, before you take me prisoner... that you'd consider moving this?" She gestured at the box laying on her leg. "It's heavier than it looks." Satya paused, then nodded and pressed her prosthetic arm to the box. Her arm's glowing blue core shone, and the box lifted easily. The woman previously pinned down stared at it, before nodding. "Hardlight. Like everything else too perfect to be real around here." Then, she snorted. "Don't suppose you're made of Hardlight too?... Nothing? Jeez, and I thought Winston didn't have a sense of humor."

Satya turned and rolled her eyes. She pulled her communicator from her belt and was about to call Sanjay, when she paused. They may have not have doing it legally, but this woman and her allies were doing the right thing- The woman they'd freed had been wrongfully imprisoned by Vishkar. She grimaced, trying to hide the indecision on her face. 

She replaced the communicator, and turned back to the now standing intruder. She looked the woman up and down, then questioned. "Are you able to walk?"

"W-wait, you're not taking me prisoner?"

Satya frowned. "I was not ordered to take prisoners, merely investigate what happened. For all I know, you are an unfortunate civilian caught in the blast. After all, you have done nothing to show otherwise."

The intruder stared at her for a moment, then nodded. "Thanks." She turned to leave, stepping carefully through the rubble. She turned back, just as she reached the hole in the wall. "I'm surprised... When I saw you were the one who I knocked out earlier, I thought for sure karma had come to collect."

Satya frowned. "Leave before I change my mind."

"Right, sorry." The intruder vanished into the area outside, and Satya set about repairing the wall. Ease of Repair was possibly the most useful thing about Hardlight. When she finished, she returned to Sanjay.

When she arrived, he looked up from paperwork and smiled. "Ah, Satya. What have you to report?"

"None of the intruders remained in the area- they escaped through a hole, blasted in the wall. I have since repaired this hole- A civilian was caught in the blast, but not injured badly. She has been sent on her way."

"You affirmed that she was not one of the intruders?"

"There was no reason to believe she was. If she was, clearly she would have escaped with the others."

"Alright. This is an unfortunate setback, but will not be the end of things. My superiors have told me that you're being assigned to the ground team in South America- You'll be one of the Architechs building the new Utopea- I envy your position, honestly."

"Thank you, Sanjay. When do I leave?"

"A plane leaves tomorrow night. You've been given the rest of the day to prepare- no assignments for you. I'd prepare personal protection... The local rebels haven't stopped their insistence on going against their government's will and the will of Vishkar."

"I will be ready. Is there anything else?"

"No, you're free to go."

She nodded, and left. The strange feeling of guilt hadn't left her, but it had alleviated somewhat. She shook her head to clear it, and went on her way. She was still doing what was right for humanity.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sombra joined Lena and Mei on the Orca, and was immediately questioned on how she escaped. She avoided the truth, saying she simply translocated out and left. When she sat down and looked around, she noticed Lena and struggled not to laugh. "The hell happened to you?!"

Lena glared. "I tried blinking to get Mei here faster but she puked on me."

Mei flushed red. "I already said I'm sorry, Lena! Multiple times!"

Sombra could no longer contain her laughter. When she recovered, she apologized. "Sorry, think that might be my fault. The translocator isn't exactly a smooth ride, especially for first-timers. Emily almost puked on me when I was getting her out of King's Row. Your blinking probably made it worse. And hey, look at it this way, I'm sure that's someone out there's fetish."

"Sombra, that is _disgusting._ " Lena couldn't help but laugh. "You know you two should come up with a reason why we didn't tell anyone we were leaving. They're gonna be beyond mad."

"Yeah, I get tha- wait, why not you?"

"Because the second we land I'm off to find a shower. Trust me, this doesn't smell great." This illicited an eye roll from Mei. 

"I guess that's Sombra's job then, since I didn't make the decision. Plus, I'm planning on finding a bathroom to wash my mouth out. So uh... good luck with that."

Sombra glared. "Somehow I feel like I'm being ganged up on."

Lena smirked. "Seems like you are. Have fun explaining."

A few hours later, they landed.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Winston was watching the Orca land, and waiting where they'd disembark to ask what the hell they thought they were doing leaving alone. At least, he was until the door opened and a blue pulse of light shot over him as Lena blinked past. Mei was the second one out, and she waved before running off before he could stop her. Sombra was the only one still in the Orca, and she looked around nervously, before trying to cloak so she could run too.

Winston grinned. "Athena, can you run a low-power electric pulse through the hangar? nothing dangerous, though."

"Affirmative Winston. Pulsing now." A second later, Sombra's cloak was shorted by the pulse. She glared, only a few steps from the door.

"That's cheating, Winston."

"If you say so. Mind explaining why you and Lena left without telling anyone? You could have been seriously hurt, or captured, or worse."

"We went alone because we knew we could do it with two- more people would have attracted unwanted attention. And it worked, didn't it?"

"I... suppose it did." Winston sighed, exasperated. "At least tell us you plan on leaving next time."

"We will."

Winston shook his head. "I hope so." Then, he left. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mei returned to her quarters, and washed out the bad taste in her mouth. She shuddered, hoping in the future she wouldn't have to use Sombras translocator or tag along with Lena's blinking. When she left, she was almost immediately beset by both Orisa and McCree, welcoming her back. She looked around, then asked the question that had come up when she saw them. "Where's Hana? She's the only one I haven't seen yet." 

Orisa pointed in the direction of Hana's room. "Ms Song has not been informed of your return yet. I believe she is... Streaming? That is the word, yes?" 

"She is? Thanks Orisa." The omnic's eyes lit up with a happy expression, and Mei giggled. McCree rolled his eyes, though.

"Not sure if she's going to appreciate an interruption, though. Last time I tried to walk in there she nearly bit my head off."

Mei shrugged. "Maybe she didn't appreciate a wanted criminal showing up on her stream."

"... Point. Ah well, go ahead and try. Don't say I didn't warn ya."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hana leaned back in her chair, grinning. Another game, another win. She checked her chat, and returned to her normal posture so the mic picked her up. "Right! Next challenge." Before the chat could reach a consensus, (it generally took a minute or two) the door opened. Hana turned to it, already preparing a glare at whoever was disturbing her stream. Probably McCree again- He should know better than to show his face somewhere as public as a livestream, considering he was still technically on the run from the law in several countries. Then the face poked around the door, and her eyes widened. Her hand shot over, and changed her stream to her 'be right back' screen. After muting her mic, she shot out of her chair, opening the door fully. "Mei! You're back! W-wait." Her face turned red. "They went and got you without me?! I'm going to _kill_ that damn cowb-"

"Relax, Hana! Most of the base is as shocked as you are- Lena and Sombra snuck out to get me on their own- I think Sombra's rubbing off on our pilot..." Mei looked over her shoulder. "Oh, are you streaming? I can leave."

Hana shrugged. "I can cut it early. I've already streamed for around 6 hours." She turned back to her computer, put a short message in chat, and cut the stream. "Glad to see you back. I... I was worried about you."

Mei giggled, and Hana turned to glare. "S-sorry, Lena just told me about what happened."

Hana's expression flashed between shock, anger, and horror. "She what!?"

Mei laughed, hugged Hana close, and tried to reassure her. "I'm glad to know you cared enough to be worried, Hana."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No prizes for guessing that a South American Utopea will be a future plot point...


	14. Defect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kept you waiting, huh?
> 
> I sincerely apologize for the long break, I've wanted to write for a while but a combination of life getting busy and school has forced me to take a hiatus. I'm not sure how consistent updates will be, but I'm going to try.

Widowmaker sat on the roof, her head in her hands, as flashes of memory mocked her. Her husband's- no, just another target's voice. She couldn't allow herself to think of the man as her husband. He was the woman she used to be's husband. She was Widowmaker, and she had to distance herself from who she was before. 

But she couldn't, not anymore. The flashes started innocently enough, brief memories of books she'd read, or looking out over a city. Then they started to involve _him_. once they'd started that, she knew it was becoming a problem. Then the flashes started happening more often. Now they happened every day, sometimes multiple times a day. And even when they weren't happening, part of her mind was occupied wondering when they would happen next. She lifted her head and turned as Reaper appeared behind her, his heavy boots announcing his presence even before he started talking. "Widowmaker. You didn't report in."

"You were sent to kill me, then?" Her rifle lay on the ground, close enough to reach.

"What? No, I was sent to make sure you weren't ambushed. What's going on up here?" Reaper's voice showed concern, not that she believed it was genuine.

"Look for yourself." She waved an arm out at the building across from them, where three targets had been set up. Pointing at the one furthest to the right, she shook her head. "Today's results. One bullseye, eight hits, and a miss."

Reaper shifted his weight, shrugging. "So? That's far more consistent than most of talon. What's the issue?"

She moved her arm to point at the middle target. "Yesterday. Three bullseyes, seven hits." Then, she moved on to the last. "The day before. Eight bullseyes, two hits."

The implication hit Reaper, and he paused. "So... your accuracy is degrading. Maybe something got damaged with the last mission, is Widow's Ki-"

"The rifle is fine, Reaper, I've rebuilt it twice in the last hour. It's not the rifle, it's me. Starting a few weeks ago, I've been getting flashes of the woman who became me. Now those flashes so consume me I can't even concentrate properly. I am a broken tool, and Talon has no room for broken tools."

"So that's why you assumed I came to kill you? What's your plan now?"

She sighed, grabbed her rifle and stood. "I'm not sure. I cannot stay, because sooner or later, the council will realize what has happened to me. When that happens, I'm a dead woman." She looked down at herself then, and shook her head. "But it's not as if I can seek shelter. I'm not exactly hard to recognize."

Reaper looked out at the targets, then back at Widowmaker. "I see. I assume there's nothing I can do to dissuade you from leaving?"

"There is not. Unless you can erase my memory of her entirely, without any chance it would eventually fail like the procedure I've already gone through has."

"Right... You know I can't let you leave, right?" He lifted a hellfire shotgun, and pointed it at her. "I'd hoped I could convince you to stay, but after Sombra's defection, If you go missing, there's no telling what the council will do. Plus... I've still got my headset in, so they've heard this entire conversation."

She raised an eyebrow, and looked straight at him. "And you think I honestly didn't prepare for this?" Before he could react, a widow mine exploded, filling the roof with smoke. He coughed, staggering backwards and firing, as Widowmaker launched her grappling hook, disappearing into the night. When the smoke cleared, Reaper stood alone on the roof, with nothing but the silence in his earpiece to inform him of the council's reaction.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Egypt, just after the Raptora-6 Demonstration

"Amari, you asked to speak with me?"

"Indeed sir, I came to make a request." Pharah stood before her commanding officer, at attention. "I'd like to use some of my vacation time, in a week."

Her commanding officer looked a bit surprised. "You know you don't need to make a formal request for that, right? The standard channels would do fine. In any case, I can't see why you wouldn't be given time off. How long will you be away?"

She paused, her expression mixed. "I'm... not sure. I believe I saw something at the demonstration that I wish to follow up on personally. Nothing that endangers Helix or its interests, simply... something that I feel I need to investigate."

The officer nodded, and looked out the window of their office. "Alright. You're on leave until further notice, Captain Amari. Don't get yourself killed out there."

"I won't, sir. I hope to not be gone longer than a week."

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Egypt, present

Pharah stood on the roof overlooking the area the presentation had taken place in. On the ground just in front of her was a dart that she recognized. The liquid inside was a dull gold, the tellltale signs of a biotic weapon. To her knowledge, not many biotic weapons were currently in use by any known force, and the only one that would fire darts like these...

She shook her head. There was no way it was really her, was there?


	15. The Old Guard

Winston nodded to Lena as she entered, taking her seat at the table the group had assembled to. He gestured at a projection, and spoke. "Earlier today we got word of a few former agent's locations. They're all close together, near the ruins of Eichenwalde. We think Reinhardt Wilhelm and Torbjörn Lindholm are meeting, for what we don't know. The problem is, if Talon knows they're meeting they're going to come under attack. If we can get to them first, I'm confident at least Reinhardt will join the cause. as for Torbjörn, I'm not so sure. Talon's been mostly silent these past few days, I have hope they won't attack, but if they do, We need to be there to help. I'm sending Hana, McCree, Lena, and Sombra. Mei, Orisa, and I, will remain. Leaving Gibraltar completely undefended like we have been is a huge risk. Some of us need to stay here."

Mei nodded. "Right."

Lena broke in, looking a little concerned. "What do we do about Emily? We can't... take her back to King's Row, she'll be vulnerable there."

Winston sighed. "I'm afraid Emily will have to stay in the watchpoint for the time being. I don't like it, but we don't have other options."

McCree shrugged, standing up and picking his hat off the table. "Well, what're we waiting for? Burnin' daylight. And 'sides, Emily's proved she could take care of herself. She's earned her place with Overwatch, at the very least in my book."

"Yeah, She proved more effective at fighting Lena than any of us." Sombra snorted. "To be fair, she also got the drop on her and we didn't, but that's beside my point."

The meeting continued for a few minutes, And soon they had decided on a plan.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Akande sat with the talon council, his expression grim. "Moira."

The doctor looked at him, smiling. "Yes, Akande?"

"Agent Reaper has had his chances. He is taken off the task of retrieving Sombra. I am putting you in charge. If and when she is captured, I am giving you full carte blanche. I do not care what you do with her. I simply want her out of Talon's way."

Moira bowed low, grinning. "Of course. Your will be done." She stood back up, and turned to leave, vanishing into smoke.

Akande shook his head. "You know you could have just walked out."

Moira leaned back in through the door. "Where's your flair for the dramatic?" She laughed, and left.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Eichenwalde.**

Torbjörn stood, grimacing. "I'm telling you Reinhardt, you won't like what I have to show you."

Reinhardt laughed. "Torbjörn, friend, we worked together for years. Nothing you can bring can surprise me."

Brigitte sat near the windows, tinkering with Reinhardt's hammer. "What've you got dad?"

Slowly, Torbjörn nodded, and exited one of the doors. The two heard his voice, saying something they couldn't hear, and he backed inside, continually speaking to something outside. "Right, you might not like what you see, but stay calm. No one here is going to hurt you."

Reinhardt and Brigitte watched, interested, as he reentered the room, then Reinhardt stood bolt upright seeing what followed him. "What th- Torbjörn, what is this?"

Bastion followed Torbjörn into the room, taking a step back as it saw Reinhardt move, then stopped, standing back upright, and looking at Torbjörn. The Engineer sighed, nodding. "See, told you you wouldn't like it. Trust me, I don't either, but it's not hostile. It's even been shot at, and it didn't fight back. It's... peaceful, for lack of a better word. It's uh... got this bird followin' it around too."

Bastion made a series of beeping noises, and waved. A small bird flew around the room, before landing on Bastion's shoulder. The group stood in uneasy truce with each other, before Brigitte smiled. "Impressive! You found a way to make it peaceful?"

Torbjörn shook his head. "Found it like this, actually. No idea how or why, but the thing isn't acting like it should. It almost seems... sentient. But it's not, not like Omnics are. Or at least, it shouldn't be." Bastion made a sad noise, and Torbjörn turned. "You understand me, then? Never got a clear answer on that." The robot made a confirming noise. "Feh, I suppose I should apologize for anything rude I've said."

Brigitte nodded. "You should. I know you don't trust Omnics dad, but they're people just like you and me."

Bastion walked to the window, looking out into the distance, before making an alarmed beeping and pointed. In the distance, several black vehicles flew. Reinhardt approached the window, and grimaced. "Talon. We've got company, let's set up!" He turned and looked to Brigitte. "How's my hammer?"

"Should work fine!" Brigitte jumped to her feet, running to the entrance they'd parked at, and opened the back to get her armor. She returned a moment later, carrying her mace and grinning. "We've got some good places to defend in here, they can only come at us through the doorways."

Torbjörn nodded grimly, and looked at Bastion. "I can trust ya not to turn on us in the fighting, right?" As he did he headed for the stairway to set up a turret. Bastion made an affirmative beeping, and started to transform into its Sentry mode. It aimed at one of the entrances, beeping again.

Brigitte grinned. "Looks like it's gonna help us! Keep yourself out of the line of fire."

Reinhardt laughed, and grinned. "I'm starting to like this Bastion unit! They can bring all the forces they like, We'll take them all!"

Suddenly having an idea, Brigitte raised her head. "Got an idea, be right back!" They watched her disappear, then heard the sound of Reinhardt's car starting. There was a brief sound of the engine running, then a crunch. About thirty seconds later, Brigitte returned. "Used the car to move some rubble, the door on the left of the room-" She pointed, then turned to face the main entrance. "Is unusable. We've only got two to defend now, the main entrance and the upstairs."

Reinhardt nodded, setting up his shield at the main entrance, and Brigitte climbed the stairs, Standing in the way to protect Torbjörn's turret. Soon, they heard the sound of Talon landing, and voices from outside discussing tactics. The first groups entered, and before anyone could react, Bastion began to fire. The Talon troopers barely had time to yell in surprise before being cut down, the groups behind them staring in horror at the sound of the gunfire. A group that tried to flank came across Brigitte and the turret, starting to fight before Brigitte slammed forwards, stunning one and swinging her mace into another's head. The turret fired, pushing the rest of the group out, but there was a squad regrouping to push together. Two soldiers in heavier armor rounded the main entrance, their weapons starting to glow. Reinhardt turned, protecting the group inside as Bastion continued to gun down troopers.

Reinhardt laughed, stepping forward. "Feel like we could do this all day!"

firing down on the enforcers from near the stairs, Torbjörn shook his head. "Not if they start getting hits in! Keep that shield up!"

Brigitte grinned, slamming her shield into another soldier as more tried to come in through the top floor entrance. "We've got shields to spare, they aren't getting through. I can throw you a rapid repair kit, if your armor starts taking hits. Plus, our new friend should be able to self-repair!"

Bastion was rapidly shifting from target to target, mowing down Talon as they came in. A loud whine echoed through the building, and Torbjörn lifted his head. "Sounds like they're dropping in an assassin! Be careful!" The assassin's laughter filled the building, and she appeared almost in a flash above Brigitte. Torbjörn turned, firing a blast of molten metal up and into the assassin's arm, and she grunted in pain before diving off the wall, sprinting towards him. Before she could get anywhere, Brigitte turned and slammed her shield into the Assassin's head, sending the woman reeling as Torbjorn's turret also turned to start firing. The assassin vanished again, appearing on a wall across the building, unfortunately for her, in Bastion's line of sight. In a hail of bullets, she fell off the wall, and tried to retreat out the door she fell in front of, only to find the rubble Brigitte had pushed into the doorway. The assassin turned back, about to rush back into the room when Torbjörn entered the hallway and unleashed a large blast of molten metal, a spray of shards that caught her in the chest and head, and she fell. "Assassin down, we're clear! That rubble worked!"

Reinhardt kept his shield facing the main entrance, watching over his shoulder as Torbjörn returned to the room and resumed keeping the Talon soldiers from getting inside. "We'll hold them at bay! Nothing they can bring will be enough!"

"I hope you're right, because looks like we're holding this spot for a while, I can see more aircraft heading in!" Brigitte stopped, confused. "Wait, that one's not Talon! We might be getting backup!"

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The group landed a short distance from the building Talon was assaulting, and disembarked, Hana leading the charge. Lena and Sombra followed, with McCree bringing up the rear. As they approached, Sombra disappeared into her camouflage, And Lena blinked forward, bringing her fist up into a trooper's chin, turning and shooting another. With that, she blinked past the rest of the group into the building. Hana rolled her eyes, activating her defense matrix so she and McCree could push inside. "Think they forgot they're the fast ones?" 

McCree laughed, dropping a trooper with a single well-aimed shot. "Guess so. We'll just have to make up for that by being better shots, eh? Good thing I'm the best." The two continued their advance, getting inside. As they did, The Bastion unit inside almost started firing, before Reinhardt grinned. "Ah, my friends! And..." He glanced at Sombra. "Whoever you are. But still, I am glad to see allies in our time of need!"

Lena looked a fair bit uneasy looking at a Bastion unit, but nodded. "Glad to see you too, Reinhardt! You've made an... interesting friend!"

"Indeed we have Lena! Torbjörn brought it, and it's friendly enough!" 

McCree rolled past a trooper, gunning him down and stepping through Reinhardt's barrier. "Glad to see you're alright, old man!"

The Talon enforcer about to push into the room was roughly slammed into the wall, as D.va's mech pushed through, her boosters turning off as she passed through the barrier. "Alright, let's get this started!"

Bastion's beeping was interrupted by Brigitte looking down at the new arrivals. "Oh wow, we really did get some backup, huh?"

The group, now eight, filled most of the building as they prepared to defend against Talon's next attack. A loud, echoing crash sounded outside, followed by the loud laughter of a Talon Heavy Assault. McCree shuddered, and shouted. "We got company coming in, and a big one. Everyone focus fire!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heavy on the way, but they've got enough firepower it shouldn't prove very problematic...


	16. Assault on Eichenwalde

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did consider leaving the last chapter as a cliffhanger, then thought 'if I get too busy to write in the next week, which is entirely possible, it would be cruel to have a cliffhanger possibly last a month or more.'

Hana grimaced as her mech blared warnings at her, and she swore. "Uh... don't know how much longer this thing's gonna keep running! I fixed all I could, but there's some damage I couldn't figure out! We better finish this fast, or I might not have a MEKA!"

Brigitte dropped from the top floor, taking up position next to Reinhardt. "Dad and I can take a look, but we might want to wait until we're outta here!"

The heavy assault that had dropped outside finally lumbered around the entrance, laughing as his guns spun up. Reinhardt's shield held, but cracks formed across its surface. Bastion's return fire almost bounced off its armor, and the combined firepower of the group barely slowed the heavy down. Reinhardt backed up, keeping his shield between the enemy and his allies, and looked back. "Not much room to retreat, we have to regroup! Brigitte, how's that upper exit?"

"It's clear, they stopped sending troopers in that way after the fourth wave or so that got gunned down by the turret!" Brigitte ascended the stairs, swinging her mace as it activated, whipping out and striking the heavy assault in the head, getting a grunt of pain from the armored man, but not much more. As the rest of the group made their way up the stairs, Bastion and Reinhardt covered their retreat. Soon, they made their way outside, and started backing into the street. "How far's the ship you guys came in?"

"By the castle, there was nowhere else to land it! We've got a bit of a way to go, but we should be fine!" Lena blinked up past a group, dropping a pulse bomb into their midst, taking them down in one blast. The heavy followed the Overwatch Agents, coming around the corner as they reached the bridge. Reinhardt brought up his shield as its energy restored, filling the gap beneath the bridge.

"Behind me, everyone! There's only so much firepower that monster can put out!" The assembled agents regrouped, raining fire down on the Talon forces as they rounded the corner. McCree nodded, stepping aside and focusing.

"Right, y'all know what time it is." After a few seconds of focusing, McCree raised his gun, firing repeatedly, each shot finding its mark as a Talon trooper dropped. The heavy seemed to not even care, as a bullet hit directly between his eyes. He just laughed, continuing his advance, firing all the way. "The hell!? What do they pump these assholes full of!?"

As the group was forced back further, an Assassin appeared on a wall, about to dive down when Sombra turned and unleashed an EMP pulse. The assassin screamed as she fell from the wall she clung to, slamming into the ground. As she tried to get up, D.va's MEKA landed on her back, crushing her into the dirt. The MEKA protested, and Hana yelped as she almost lost balance. "We can keep going! The gate's up, we're almost clear! It's not Game Over yet, keep it together!" The group managed to retreat almost to the bridge, keeping the heavy far enough back its firepower wasn't fully brought to bear. The sound of snipers engaging rung through the old city, as there was finally large enough sightlines for them to effectively fight. Reinhardt instinctively raised his shield, protecting from the gunfire as the retreat continued. They pushed on, almost at the ship when a horrifying sound echoed through the city.

A second heavy landed beside the first, and their battle cries seemed to sound together, a single scream of mixed rage and excitement. And then a third, and a fourth. The group of heavies unleashed a completely overwhelming amount of gunfire, and even as the group managed to step onto the ship, Reinhardt's shield shattered. Brigitte surged forwards, putting her own shield up to protect the group as the door closed, but wasn't enough to protect them entirely. The hail of bullets slammed into Hana's MEKA, and one of the legs simply buckled, sending the MEKA crashing to the ship's floor. Hana screamed as she spilled out the side, almost getting torn apart by the gunfire before Bastion managed to get between Hana and the bullets, using its body as a shield. The doors finally closed, and Hana climbed to her feet, the group of eight taking stock of each other. While Lena counted heads, The ship started to lift off, but waited for the command. She leaned on a wall, breathing heavily. "Athena! Take... Take off! We can't stay here!" With her word, the ship lifted off the ground, taking to the air, even the sound of bullets fell like rain on the ship's hull, occasionally broken by the loud crack of sniper fire.

They looked at each other, all in various states of recovering from the fight, Hana sitting against a table in the ship, while Brigitte looked her over, as the only medic among the assembled agents. Torbjörn was examining Bastion, but the robot was rapidly repairing itself from the hits it had taken in shielding Hana, and seemed to be fine after only a few seconds. Reinhardt grinned, standing tall, while the others all stood in various states of tired. "That! Was amazing! Best fight I've had in years!"

Lena sunk to a sitting position, and grinned at Reinhardt. "Still excitable as ever, I see."

McCree watched out the window as the old city disappeared below them. "Was there ever any doubt? Reinhardt could go through hell and still be his old boisterous self."

Reinhardt laughed, shaking his head. "That I could, McCree." He turned to Brigitte, looking at Hana. "How is she?"

Hana tried to climb to her feet, waving Brigitte off as she did. "I'm fine, really. That Bastion unit got between me and those... whatever they were."

McCree nodded, looking Bastion over. "Talon heavy assaults, the strongest gun in Talon's armory besides their true elite operatives. Their battlesuits pump them full of combat drugs, so they can take an absolutely inhuman amount of fire before going down."

Torbjörn looked around, nodding. "Right, we're all safe now... I recognize a lot of the faces here, but not all." He gestured at Hana, then Sombra. "Who're you two? Not old Overwatch, like the rest of us."

Hana gave a short salute. "Hana Song, of MEKA. Working with the new Overwatch after they intervened in a talon attack on civilians. I was in the area at the time, and MEKA assigned me to work with the group that intervened, very specifically not mentioning that it was Overwatch to our superiors."

Reinhardt perked up when he heard her name, but didn't say anything, while Torbjörn turned to Sombra. "And you?"

"Sombra. Previously allied with Talon, but I decided to leave when they shot me in the spine and left me for dead." Sombra was standing by another window, and yelped as a sniper shot cracked into the window a few inches from her head, swearing as she stepped away. "Hell of a shot..." She could barely even see Eichenwalde's ground in the distance now, and the sound of the Heavy Assaults gunfire had long since stopped, but the occasional crack of sniper fire still sounded.

Reinhardt turned to Lena, grinning. "Well Lena, surely you didn't show up just to be the cavalry."

Lena snorted, shaking her head. "The original plan was to get you out before Talon arrived, but that didn't go exactly how we wanted it to, now did it?"

Torbjörn rolled his eyes, and found a seat while they flew. "And, why'd you come all this way? Not that we don't appreciate the help, but Overwatch is dead and gone."

Brigitte raised an eyebrow, looking at him. "Clearly not, considering there's six agents in this ship, not counting me and the Bastion unit." She turned back to Lena, starting the process of stepping out of her armor. "I assume you're trying to get the gang back, so to speak?"

McCree nodded, stepping forwards. "Yeah, Winston started the recall originally, Lena joined first, then Sombra, then Mei, me, and an Omnic named Orisa. We were gonna extend the invite to y'all, but Talon kinda interrupted that party."

Reinhardt stepped out of his armor, leaving it in the corner to keep it out of the way, and enthusiastically nodded. "I will of course return! Doing the right thing is my calling, I can't just sit around while you fight the good fight without me!"

Brigitte finished removing her armor, setting it down next to Reinhardt, joining him. "Me too. Someone's gotta keep the old man in line, right?" She smirked, and Reinhardt laughed.

Torbjörn for his part, sighed. "Well, I'd want to say no, but after today, I'm not sure I can pretend that I'm not involved again. Talon's gonna keep coming after me even if I don't, so I guess I'm with you." He turned to Bastion, and shrugged. "Not sure about This one, but it seemed willing to risk getting scrapped to save Hana, so I'd say it probably wants to join."

Bastion made a series of affirmitive beeps while the small bird perched on its head, and Athena's voice echoed from a speaker. "The Bastion unit says it would love to accompany you. Also, that it hopes its bird won't be too obtrusive."

Lena grinned, looking around at the group. "Well, looks like we just made a huge leap forward! Overwatch is back in the race."

The ship flew on, the group talking as it did, until they returned to Gibraltar. They stepped down from the ship, Lena blinking ahead to let Winston and the others know ahead of time that they had a Bastion unit with them. When they were all together, introductions were made between Orisa and the new arrivals, as well as Mei as neither Reinhardt nor Torbjörn had spent much time with the ecology teams.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Akande watched the recording of the battle from one of the surviving Trooper's helmet camera. The rest of the Talon council, as well as Moira, watched as Sombra's EMP dropped the assassin from the wall, and Moira grimaced. "I will work with the R&D teams to make sure that cannot be done again."

"Ensure that you do. The more failures we have, the stronger Overwatch becomes. Soon they will be enough of a threat that we will have to resort to stealth and subterfuge to get anything done."

One of the other council members pointed at the screen. "How on earth did they ally themselves with a Bastion unit? They were never even sentient, the God AI in the crisis controlled them completely. With the God AIs deactivated, Bastion units should just be inert."

The point sparked debate across the table, And Moira took the opportunity to leave, heading for their R&D labs. On her way there, she called an Assassin to the lab, and arrived at about the same time. The scientists present looked from her to the assassin, more than a couple of them wondering if they were about to be disposed of. Then, Moira spoke. "The shields and cybernetics in our Assassin units-" She gestured at the present assassin. "Are entirely vulnerable to EMP blasts and enemy hackers. We must fix this, if we intend to bring them to bear at all against the new Overwatch, since they have Sombra now. As of now, this is your top priority, from the council themselves. We are on a tight schedule, the longer we take the stronger they become. Do not fail us." She turned and left, preparing for a mission of her own.


End file.
